When She Went Bad
by Total Vartan Lover
Summary: FINALLY UPDATED 052405! NEW CHAPTER UP! You know you've been waiting for it : Sydney has been missing for two years, but she never expected this! The popular Posttelling fic is starting back up again. Please Read and Review!
1. Default Chapter

Good afternoon! And welcome to another fic by "Leo's l'il sista," author of the pretty well read "the other side of the story!!!!! (169 review so far! Thanks ya'll!!!) As always I don't' own anything except the storyline which is my own!!!  
  
So without further ado let's all jump right into..  
  
When She was Bad  
  
Part I: "I Chose a Life without Vaughn?" Leo's l'il sista  
  
Sydney contemplated whether she should listen to a word Vaughn was saying.  
  
She'd been missing for two years? He though she was dead?  
  
And most importantly if she should believe the biggest twist~~~ that he was married.  
  
Vaughn just sat there, sitting in his casual clothes. She immediately concluded that Michael no longer worked at the agency and must have chosen a different occupation after she'd disappeared.  
  
"Sydney, did you hear what I said?" he demanded, but in what sounded like a gentle tone that was forced.  
  
"I did," Sydney replied tonelessly. "So I was missing for two years. I guess I can't not believe you about that since I have no proof telling me that I wasn't," Sydney griped, her gaze down. But she lifted her eyes to meet his as she whispered. "But that doesn't explain to me exactly why you've moved on. Didn't grieve much did ya?"  
  
"On the contrary, Sydney. You're the one who went AWOL on us, choosing that guy over your obligations to the office~~~over seeing me anymore," Vaughn's voice cracked but he seemed to be filled with more anger than pain and Sydney wondered if his hands were convulsing because he could barely control himself from strangling her. "I mean, I thought maybe you were hesitant about accepting my proposal because we're always in the range of someone else's fire and after all our life has been put through~~~but I never expected what you did to me."  
  
"Wait~~Pro~proposal?" Sydney cut in, tears brimming in her lashes, a smile tugging at her lips. "You asked me to marry you Vaughn?"  
  
"Of course I did! And it surprised me when you said no~~~"  
  
"But~ why would I say no?" she murmured and Vaughn shot back with a "how the hell should I know? You're the one who said it!"  
  
"But I~ I love you Vaughn."  
  
"Please Syd, stop right there. Don't make this harder on me than it already is, or I might defy my own orders and shoot you," Michael warned her and Sydney could tell he was serious. "You told me that I was no longer what you wanted, that your feelings had changed~~~"  
  
"I, I don't' believe this~~~I can't!"  
  
"It's a choice you made, Syd. A choice I had to live with," Michael complained, getting irritated by the minute. "The last I knew you were on a plan to who knows where. I even went to see you off, to tell you you're making a mistake, and not only to warn you that if you left U.S ground now that it would put you on the CIA wanted list, but because I believed in you and I wanted you in my life and I~~~I was devastated. You left."  
  
"B~but, I wouldn't have done that! I'm in love with you. I~ I don't' remember any of this," she gasped, now ready to sock Michael in the face if he kept going on with this scenario.  
  
"I knew you'd think it's unbelieveable someday, and that's probably why you're finally turning yourself in. I don't believe blame you for denying it either since it's in your genes," Michael cajoled her, being a bit comforting, knowing it wasn't her fault that she was related to Irina Derevko. "But it happened and you were dishonorably discharged from the CIA and then you were put on the list of most dangerous terrorist list we have at HQ."  
  
"Turn myself in? But I didn't do anything," Sydney screamed, wanting Vaughn to believe her.  
  
"Enough. You're here and we're taking you into custody. We were surprised you remembered that number you called. You left the CIA," Michael repeated, wanting her to say she remembered something and then rubbed his face with his sweaty hand, flashing his wedding ring, to keep from completely blowing up in her face.  
  
"But I'm not denying it! The only thing I remember is killing~~~Francie's double, Allison Doren and finding out Will was shot and left in the bathtub."  
  
"Oh you're good, Syd. You're going to pretend I didn't propose to you? That's wrong, Syd. I can almost hate you right now!" Michael fumed, shaking his head sadly. "You really have turned into a monster."  
  
Sydney staggered back. None of her words were getting through to him. He really had gotten married, he really had been dumped by her. She then turned her back on him and broke down.  
  
Michael looked on painfully, his forehead breaking into wrinkles of concern, a little hope refusing not to grow in his heart that Sydney was telling the truth.  
  
"This isn't fair!" she sobbed, lying against the cold floor. "Who stole you from me? Who took my life away?!"  
  
Michael bit his lip, punishing himself for what he was about to do. He squatted next to her and gently caressed her face with his hand. "Syd, come on~~~get up."  
  
Sydney looked at him and then before he could refuse her, she kissed his lips, hoping her warmth would trigger her lost memories and make her believe in her as absurd as she sounded when suddenly the door opened and armed guards charged intot he room, pointing ready-guns at her.  
  
"Freeze! Hands above your head!"  
  
Sydney was so shocked as she looked at her surroundings and burst into whimpers and clung to Vaughn who surprised her more when they talked to him.  
  
"As you were," Vaughn told them.  
  
"Agent Vaughn, we are ready to take her into solitary care," one of the uniformed men replied, coming forward.  
  
"Change of plans. I want her moved into the naval hospital for a whole work up. It looks as though she's suffered a major memory loss," Michael retorted, shielding Sydney from their aim with his body.  
  
"Sir, my orders are to~~~"  
  
"I gave you those orders and I'm changing them!" Vaughn cut in angrily, his green eyes flashing with disapproval. "And I want her checked out before she's put in confinement, so your job is to make sure the plane is here, and keep the guards at all the exits in case Sydney Bristow decides to make a run for it."  
  
"Confinement?" Sydney thought in alarm and realized that Michael was not the Michael she knew anymore and released him from her grasp. She watched in fear as Michael received something from the guards and then watched them leave.  
  
When they were alone, Sydney couldn't keep it in any longer. "M~Michael, exactly what is going on? Why are you giving orders to put me in confinement? I thought you weren't in the agency anymore. You said they called you back~~~"  
  
"I'm no longer in the L.A office, I'm actually stationed in Washington D.C with the new field office but when they got the call from you, they asked me to come back and I did. I'm the Director now, Sydney, and I have been looking for you like a madman for two years," Michael revealed, wearing a hardened expression identical to the al-business and then some expression Director Kendall used to sport. "And I have plenty of reason and first hand experience to know that you have become an enemy to the agency, you and that guy you left me for."  
  
"What? No~~~I told you, I have no recollection of what you're talking about."  
  
"Syd, I don't know how long you think denying this is going to work but it's not, and had I not just recently cleaned out my personal stuff and found memorablia of you, I might not be so comforting to the woman who heedlessly thew away my heart, killed my wife and turned against every single person you ever cared for," Michael stated firmly, and a tight frown was stamped on his face.  
  
"No, you've got this all wrong," she began but then stopped herself, took a composing breath and asked, "what did I do?"  
  
"Sydney~~~"  
  
"I don't remember. You said so yourself I have a memory loss. I have a right to know what's going on," Sydney pleaded, her tone becoming very harsh and business like. "You said I killed your wife, and what exactly do you mean when you say I turned against every person I ever cared for?"  
  
"I assure you you'll have plenty of time to think about what you did as long as you're going to be in custody," Michael promised her then reached for her arm. "But first, I think it's time to give you something to put you to sleep, just in case you try anything."  
  
Sydney watched in horror as Michael wiped her arm and then inched a needle toward her arm. She kicked him in the shin, kneed him in the groin and then ran out of the room at record speed.  
  
"SYDNEY!" Michael cursed, pulling himself up as he did. He had certainly not underestimated Sydney's strength, if only he'd moved a second faster. He pulled out his CIA phone and connected it to his headset before he speed-dialed a familiar CIA analyst.  
  
"This is "Scientist."  
  
"Will, this is Dir Vaughn," he said briskly. "I just lost her. Tell me Marshal has got a picture of her on satellite camera."  
  
"W~was it her?" Will demanded, not listening to what Vaughn was saying.  
  
Michael took a deep breath before he answered. "Yeah, it was her."  
  
"H~how is she?"  
  
"She's back in business," Michael grimaced, not wanting any small- talk.  
  
"So, is she turning herself in?"  
  
"Does it look like it?" Vaughn scowled as he moved out of the room. "She's so confused and she's doing a hell of a job denying it, I almost bought that she was the old Syd," Vaughn complained, his voice cracking and Will could hear the vengeance in his voice.  
  
"Mike, we all have a bullet from her, and we all are worried sick about Weiss and~~~ I know she killed your wife," Will groaned, feeling worse and worse as he voiced these comments. "But don't' do anything stupid, not until she's checked out. If she is the monster she's been these last two years~~~ you'll have plenty of opportunity and permission to torture her till you get the truth out of her."  
  
"I'm not. I even asked the guards to leave me alone with her but you won't believe this Will, the last thing she remembers is doing away with Francie Calfo's double! That's over five years ago!"  
  
"Well, go after her. We're not going to get any answers until we get to talk to her. Marshall has got her on camera, she's on foot and obviously she hasn't gotten far. You managed to get the bug on her, huh?"  
  
"Y~yeah, and that was the easiest part. I opened the door to the safehouse and she ran up to me, as if she was really glad to see me," Michael reported as he moved down the quiet hallway.  
  
"Maybe she was, Vaughn. I always felt that thing where she went AWOL on us was not like her," Will added, trying to defend Syd's side because nobody would.  
  
"Well, as of now, all I know is that she shot Weiss on the last mission she did with us, shot me, tortured you and files worth of incidents that makes her look worse than Derevko," Vaughn reminded him and Will didn't say anything, knowing he was an analyst and Vaughn was higher than him in the CIA sense.  
  
"Okay Vaughn, what do you want me to do?"  
  
"I want you to send a message to the naval hospital and get a room set up for Sydney when she gets in," Vaughn ordered him and then in a pain- filled voice he added, "And also get a team ready for a possible surgery to reactivate her memories."  
  
"V~vaughn, that~~~you sure you want to do that?"  
  
"Y~Yes, right now I'm looking at her as the enemy, not as my past girlfriend or I'm going to die convincing her of it," Director Vaughn insisted, his tone becoming very harsh and abrupt. "So, do that for me, I'm going to go after her."  
  
"All right, Vaughn. Marshall's telling me Sydney has gotten herself stuck in our trap closet," Will informed him. "This is "Scientist" signing off."  
  
Vaughn ended the call, then reached for his gun, sneaking along the wall when he heard another incoming call.  
  
"Agent Vaughn."  
  
"Vaughn, this is Jack, I just thought you'd like to know we've gotten a hold of David Manning."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Sydney's husband."  
  
"Oh right, what did you find out on him?" Vaughn asked anxiously when he heard the sound of crying.  
  
"Nothing, not even a speeding ticket," Jack grimaced. "He's clean and he's demanding a lawyer. He even has an alibi for all the time accounted for the last two years. And he claims Syd walked out on him like she did with you."  
  
"Well, tell him to stay put and give him all the comforts of home and we'll have him talk to Sydney. It might help her with her memory loss," Vaughn answered.  
  
"Memory loss?"  
  
"Yeah, of what seems like the last five years."  
  
"Have you gotten her into custody?"  
  
"I'm still working on it," Vaughn replied gruffly, as he inched toward the cabinet he'd rigged with a locking trap. "She's resisting arrest."  
  
"Vaughn, I know she killed your wife, and you probably hate her guts, and I know you went through a lot of pain from the way Sydney left you~~~but~~~"  
  
Oh yeah, father's request. "This was exactly what he needed.  
  
"What is it, Jack?"  
  
"She's my daughter and her behavior these last two years have been peculiar to me, just~~~please please Vaughn, don't' shoot her."  
  
Michael was moved by the concern in his voice and gave him a relieving answer. "Jack, don't' worry. I'm going to use sedation first. And I think she's stepped into this closet and locked herself in. I'll call you again when we're on the plane."  
  
"Thank you Vaughn."  
  
"Don't mention it," he chided him then ended the call and walked over to the closet, gun ready and knocked on the door. "Hey Syd, are you stuck?"  
  
"Stay away from me you imposter!"  
  
"Excuse me? You're the one who posed as if you liked me then ran away with some random guy, who's the imposter?" he asked calmly.  
  
"I told you Vaughn, I have no clue what you're talking about!"  
  
"Agent Bristow, if this is how you want to play it. You've got two choices. Either come quietly now and I'll give you sedation so you won't be bothered and can have a restful sleep until you're in L.A or I can have a breathing hole cut into this crate and ship you like that. It's your choice. Personally I don't' have a preference."  
  
Sydney became silent and he wondered if she was thinking.  
  
"Sydney?"  
  
No answer  
  
"Syd?"  
  
There was still no reply and Vaughn's body was overcome by chills. He hurridely pulled out his ring of keys and fumbled through five of them before he found the one that opened the door.  
  
He yanked it open and found Syd had passed out.  
  
Michael gasped and felt for her pulse. She had one but it was very thready.  
  
"Hey, this is Vaughn. I need paramedics pronto," Vaughn shouted into his headset, elevating Syd's head and turned to her when he got a satisfying answer. She's opened her eyes.  
  
"Vaughn?"  
  
"Don't' say anymore, Syd. Not until we're back in the U.S." he ordered her, then grabbed her arm and gave her the sedation. "You should be excited, your husband is waiting for you."  
  
"M~michael~~~"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Y~you won't kill me, will you? Not before I've had a chance to find out what happened to me?"  
  
It took a lot of Vaughn's self-control to reply, "Of course I wouldn't Syd. I'm having you put in the naval hospital. You'll get to regain your strength and think about how you want to proceed with this before we move you into custody."  
  
Sydney was very pained and confused but nodded, knowing that unless she agreed, she would continue to be viewed as an enemy. Besides she could barely stay awake.  
  
Michael watched as she closed her eyes. Good, the sedation had finally kicked in.  
  
"Agent Vaughn."  
  
"Uh Yes. She's regained consciousness, but she's asleep now because I've given her the sedation," Vaughn informed the doctor. "Are we ready to go?"  
  
"If you're asking about the plane, it's parked on a hellipad directly on top of this building."  
  
"All right, go ahead and get her on the stretcher and take her up. I'll go and round up my team and meet you in ten minutes."  
  
The doctor nodded her head and ordered her paramedic team to get Sydney onto the stretcher and hurried into the elevator while Michael put in a phonecall and went to gather his troops.  
  
So what did ya think? Want more? Please review !!!!  
  
And if you haven't read my other fic yet, please read my other post-telling fic  
  
"The Other Side of the Story."  
  
Lataz, Leo's l'il sista 


	2. Part II: And I thought the Asian Dentist...

When She Was Bad  
  
Part II: "And The Thought The Asian Dentist was bad"  
  
By Leo's l'il sista  
  
A/N: Hey! I just wanted to say thanks for the reviews! Seven reviews for the first chapter! You all are the greatest! Please Keep Reviewing! And if you can, please check out my other post-telling fic, "the other side of the story!" Thanks, hope to talk to ya lata!  
  
Sydney kissed Michael's lips as she unboarded the car, with a promise in her ear from him that he would come pick her up after their debrief so they could head off to a three day vacation in paradise a.k.a Santa Barbara.  
  
She then forced her eyes open, knowing what would happen next. She wanted to avoid having to go through the experience of killing "Allison Doren," if she could help it.  
  
Sitting next to her bed was a bored looking Vaughn, having barely a trace of the guy who used to love her and would have given his life for her without a question in his mind.  
  
"Michael?"  
  
Vaughn's eyes finally registered and he finally voiced, "you're up." But the only reward she got was a look at his glittering green eyes that was the only thing remotely attractive about him.  
  
"Don't sound so disappointed," she quipped, and winced when she realized how curt her voice was.  
  
"Shut up," Michael ordered her then picked up the folder that was lying on her bed. "Well Syd, the low down is that you've been asleep for three days while they ran every test imaginable on your body, I personally think there should have been more. And according to the medical report, you're fine," he muttered, sounding disgusted. "No bruises, no abrasions, fatal infection~~~nothing."  
  
Sydney sighed. That sounded like a good thing to her, but not coming from Michael's mouth who obviously wanted her to be paralyzed or fatally injured in the least.  
  
"Oh don't worry, if you keep up this act of pretending you don't know what's going on, you'll have plenty of bruises and cuts on your body that will make you scream," Michael assured her, an evil glint in his emerald eyes. He reached his over to a nearby tray and picked up a glistening silver scalpel that he brought close to her face and Sydney held her breath, bracing herself for the pain of the first cut.  
  
"Stop right there, Agent Vaughn."  
  
Sydney finally let out a breath, relieved to know there was still somebody left in this world who could pull Michael back, and who's newest mission in life wasn't to make her life more miserable than it already was.  
  
"Will, what are you doing here?" he demanded, still sitting there, lowering the scalpel. "I thought you were supposed to be back at Ops."  
  
"Will?" Sydney thought, a smile working itself onto her face. She turned her head. Sure enough, there was Will Tippin, her best friend, complete with blond hair, chiseled cheekbones and an attractive smile.  
  
"Making sure you're doing your duty which right now is to comfort Agent Bristow and help her regain her strength so she'll cooperate with us," Will reminded him fiercly, looking over at Sydney out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"Then you do it," Michael retorted, slamming the tool in his hand against the tray that next clanged to the floor. "I've sat here for three days, I can do some recovery without seeing her face for a day or two," Michael huffed and then got up from his seat and slapped his thighs.  
  
Sydney followed Michael with her eyes but flinched the moment Vaughn looked over her way. Will shook his head with disapproval and watched his boss with disgust.  
  
"Fine, I will."  
  
Michael looked like he wanted to argue but instead shot them both a warning glance, obviously not to get too comfortable with each other before he left the room, slamming the door behind him.  
  
Will muttered some curse words to himself before he glanced at Sydney who was sobbing and he gathered her into his arms despite Vaughn's warning that she was the enemy. Sydney needed him, enemy or not, that didn't change.  
  
"Oh God, Will! Oh God!"  
  
"Sshhh, I know I know," Will crooned, holding her gently in his grasp, allowing her to burrow her wet face into his shoulder. "It's okay Syd, I'm right here."  
  
Sydney cried into Will's shoulder for a few more minutes and then finally let him go when her body stopped shaking and the tears stopped flooding her eyes.  
  
"Will~~~what's going on? Why does Vaughn want to torture me?" she whimpered, trying to hold it together but found that to be highly impossible.  
  
"Because he actually believes you killed his wife, and shot Weiss on a mission to Paris and that you actually could love someone other than him," Will told her, point-black, making him sound very abrupt, even though he didn't mean to be.  
  
Sydney bit her lip as she listened then wonder filled her eyes as the last part of the comment registered. "Wait, y~you don't?"  
  
Will paused for a moment himself then confirmed it with a nod.  
  
"Oh God Will!" Sydney blurted out, going back into her overly dramatic state. "You're the only one who believes me!"  
  
"I know."  
  
"You know I would never hurt Vaughn or~~~shoot at you guys if I wasn't doing it to save your life," Sydney stammered, half-convincing herself of the fact. "You know how much I care about you guys."  
  
"I know Syd," Will assured her, grinning handsomely. "The problem is that nobody else does, unless you can tell us exactly what you do remember about the last two years. Until that, we have to act on what we do know happened."  
  
"B~but, I~ you know I don't' remember, Will!" Sydney panicked, almost hyperventilating. "You know I'd tell you if I knew anything."  
  
"I know," Will repeated, and gently squeezed her hand. "And if you want Vaughn on your side, you've got one option right now."  
  
"W~what!" Sydney almost shouted, eager to know anything that would help her reestablish rapport with the former love of her life. Anything so he wouldn't view her as an enemy.  
  
"Y~you need to agree with Vaughn to go under conscious brain surgery," Will lamented, hanging his head.  
  
"WHAT!"  
  
"V~Vaughn~~~he didn't tell you?" Will winced, seeing how much pain Sydney was in.  
  
"NO!"  
  
Will was about to tell Sydney to calm down but decided against it. If he were receiving these news in the state she was in, it would just irritate him. And Sydney didn't need that.  
  
"Will, what are you talking about?" she asked in a more calm tone.  
  
"T~there's a painful surgery the CIA can order which basically consists of zapping certain nerves and giving you certain injections directly into the brain to reactivate what you've forgotten, obviously by having a secretary nearby taking notes of the serious nightmare you'll undoubtedly be experiencing."  
  
"Well I guess technology sure hasn't slacked off while I've been away," Sydney said dryly with her first real laugh since she came back.  
  
"Nah~~~I guess it hasn't," Will agreed.  
  
"So, has Michael been subject to this surgery because he's obviously lost his brain. You know how much Michael loved me, and if you didn't know that, you know that I loved Michael and I would never have done anything to hurt him unless someone were trying to kill him and that was the only way," Sydney protested, slowly starting to get panicky again.  
  
"Sydney, I know that. Even if you physically put a bullet in my leg, after I had time to think, I knew it couldn't' have been you."  
  
"Well, can you please get Michael to believe you? Because I'm really going to go insane and I might be tempted to shoot him if he keeps telling me that I'm a sociopath assassin!" Sydney almost said in a threatening voice.  
  
"I know how this must feel but I'm not going to be able to help you right now, my hands are tied until after you prove to the agency you're with them," Will told her firmly. "And the only way you can do that right now is to go with everything the agency s suggesting you do. You've got to be for finding out your memories."  
  
"Believe me, I am," Sydney murmured, not meeting Will's gaze. "I only wish I knew about my memories first before I have to tell the CIA everything. I mean, what if you guys took the memories the wrong way, what if that secretary interpreted them wrong?"  
  
"Well, if you don't, then you do know you're going to be tortured by Vaughn," Will reminded her quietly. "You do know he's the director now."  
  
"I know. I'm surprised he didn't' cut me up already," Sydney grimaced, laying back against the soft pillow. "But Will, this doesn't make sense. Are you trying to tell me there's another Sydney out there, making my life hell?"  
  
"Basically," Will shrugged. "It was that or believing you were capable of being your mother."  
  
Sydney was awashed with love from Will who had done exactly what Vaughn should have done, believed in her through thick and thing, for better or worse, and loved her unconditionally.  
  
"Thank you Will~~~thank you for believing in me."  
  
"Y~you're welcome, Syd."  
  
And they shared a smile, a smile that could only be shared by two friends, one who was having trouble identifying who were her friends and who were her enemies, and the other, ready to sock himself in the gut, knowing the CIA would torture him if they knew the secret operation he had been carrying out trying to find out about what had happened to Sydney, who had been classified as a dangerous terrorist.  
  
Will was about to say something else when Vaughn wonderfully decided to interrupt the pleasant scene by appearing by her bedside.  
  
"Tippin."  
  
"Now what, Vaughn?"  
  
"You're wanted back at base," Vaughn stated in his business tone.  
  
"But this is my day off," Will argued, not moving from his spot.  
  
"Will, you're on duty now. You know the CIA."  
  
Will growled and looked just about ready to punch the all-business out of all-business Vaughn and his smart suit, smart hair cut and smart-ass brain.  
  
"M~Michael?"  
  
Vaughn turned to her and gave her a look as though telling her she should never have addressed him.  
  
"C~Can I have just one more minute with Will?" Sydney pleaded, looking very strong despite how scared she was.  
  
Vaughn didn't look at Sydney and turned to Will. "It's your choice, Tippin."  
  
"It'd give her all day if it was my choice," he shot back, getting into Michael's face, forgetting that he worked for this guy.  
  
Vaughn seemed to have grown a heart because he didn't retaliate. He pulled the sleeve covering his watch back and said, "I give you five minutes."  
  
"Don't," Will stated but Sydney was a bit more sweet uttering a barely audible, "Thank you, Vaughn."  
  
Vaughn gave her a sigh and a long angsty stare just to prove he did have humanity in him and then grabbed one of Will's shoulders and said, "don't be late."  
  
Will watched Vaughn leave in disgust and adopted his former softer expression when he turned back to Syd who was looking very peaceful despite the rude interruption.  
  
"Syd~~~I'm sorry to have to run."  
  
"It's okay," she assured him, giving him a small smile. 'If there's anything that never changes is that the CIA~~~"  
  
"~~~always interrupts," they said in unison and then flushed noticeably.  
  
There was an awkward pause before Will took hold of one of her hands and brought his lips to them.  
  
"I'll be back, I promise."  
  
"I know you will," she grinned, not wanting Will to ever let her go.  
  
"And if there's another reason for those terrible things they're saying you did, we'll find it and we'll clear your name," Will promised in a boastful way. "And we'll make him buy out the city of New York's roses and fill your room and your bathtub, but you'll say it's not enough."  
  
Sydney was tired and really didn't want to play this game but added, "and then make him take me to the most expensive French restaurant."  
  
"And propose to you with the largest diamond right."  
  
"No~~~the rarest!" Sydney giggled, thinking, might as well.  
  
"No the largest rarest diamond!" Will corrected, "And he'll be lucky if he gets your hand in marriage."  
  
Sydney gulped to hold her tears back. Ok, that was enough.  
  
"And when he does, you make damn sure that he knows just how lucky he is to have you back in his life," Will added firmly, making it clear that Sydney was special since she probably felt inferior to anybody right now.  
  
Sydney was too moved and relieved that something was normal she couldn't' put it into words.  
  
Will noticed her silence and commented on it.  
  
"Syd?"  
  
"What would I do without you, Will?"  
  
Sydney embraced Will again then let him out of her grasp, only because she didn't want Vaughn yelling at the only friend she had left.  
  
"You be good Syd, okay? I'll be back."  
  
"In time for the surgery, I hope," Sydney muttered and Will look like he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him. "Is there like any paperwork I have to fill out or does the CIA do all that?"  
  
"Oh Syd!" Will beamed and grabbed her into another one of his impulsive hugs. He then composed himself before he pulled back and answered her question. "I don't' have the paperwork on me. I'll have it either faxed to an informant in the hospital, or we can have the agency set up a date and you sign your papers on the day of the event."  
  
"The signing part is fine," she cut in. "But is there anyway I can get information on the procedure, like, you know, the risk of getting brain damage, well at least more than I'm supposed to get and~~~how big the chance it that I'll go into a coma."  
  
Will thought Sydney looked very strong but being as close as he was to her, he could tell Sydney was absolutely freaked out.  
  
"I'll have someone give you a briefing, or maybe I can copy the info onto a disk and get Vaughn to supply you with a laptop," Will offered and to this Sydney rolled her eyes, knowing the present Vaughn didn't give a damn about her. "Hey, we'll think of something, okay?"  
  
Sydney nodded just to please Will.  
  
Another awkward pause.  
  
"Well, I think I'd better go, so I can go ahead and start working on that."  
  
"Thanks," she muttered sleepily. "I think I want to catch up on some sleep."  
  
"If you're lucky, you'll wake up out of this nightmare."  
  
With that, Will left one more kiss on Sydney's cheek then went out into the hallway, leaving Sydney trying to hold her tears back and forcing herself to go to sleep.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Will caught sight of a familiar blond head he was ready to beat the pulp out of . It was only the fact he wanted to keep his job and help Sydney that kept him from strangling Vaughn as he approached him walking down the hallway.  
  
"Michael."  
  
Michael stopped in his tracks and turned around.  
  
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me by my first name on duty?"  
  
'Technically I'm off duty and I stay that way until after I get on the plane back, and I'm really not active until after I step into the office."  
  
Vaughn knew he'd pretty much lost this battle but he wasn't going to back down, not in front of Will who probably knew how to make him believe he cared about the enemy just as much as he did.  
  
"Well, off duty or not, you went over the five minutes I gave you," Vaughn reminded him, nauseatingly condescending.  
  
"Yeah? Well I spend those five minutes answering Sydney's questions about what she needs to do to go forward with the surgery."  
  
Michael bit his lip. Ouch, Will was doing a better job than he thought.  
  
"The one where you are going to order doctors to put her in pain to activate her memories that are probably going to be painful in itself? Yeah."  
  
"And you got her to agree?"  
  
Will nodded, adding very tastefully, "she trusts me."  
  
"That's got to mean that you've filled her head with that theory where you believe Sydney was doubled and her double is who tortured me you and my wife."  
  
"Yes, I did."  
  
"I specifically told you not to use that until I'm desperate enough to believe it, in other words until you got further notification from me!" Michael scolded him, rubbing his head like he had a major headache.  
  
"It worked, didn't it?"  
  
"Of course it worked! You told her you're the only one in this world who believes her!"  
  
"Is that so wrong?"  
  
"Yes! Because having that one person is going to make our interrogation session useless!"  
  
"Fancy way of putting that you're basically going to give her the "tell the truth or else," speech."  
  
"Will, I know you think I'm hard core and that I'm being inhuman but she made me this way. And I'm going to be blunt with you~~~I requested you be needed at work."  
  
"WHAT!"  
  
"I wanted to pull you away from her before you made mess of things~~~"  
  
"WHAT!" Will repeated again.  
  
"You're getting too personal in your job and that's obviously clouding your judgement."  
  
"Michael, I know that you're in pain and I understand that you are just trying to do your job," Will admitted as he followed Michael over to a glass wall. "But if you can pull yourself out of your position as Director and into Sydney's shoes, wouldn't you want comfort as opposed to violence? You really think Sydney is going to cave and tell you anything if you threaten her?"  
  
Michael didn't have to think for a moment.  
  
No, she wouldn't. She'd never cracked under pressure, never put others in peril to save her own behind. She was the type of agent that would take the torture without flinching even if in the inside she was screaming.  
  
"Mike, you know you don't believe she did those things. You loved her, you should be more certain of that than me!"  
  
"Well I stopped loving her three years ago."  
  
"You are lying and you suck at it. If you don't then you would care whether she tells you the truth or not! You wouldn't think of making sure she endured the same pain you did if you didn't care!"  
  
"Just stop it, Will, Stop it right there!" Michael cut in harshly and something about Vaughn's tone cut Will off. "Now I'm not going to call on it this time because I know you've missed Syd and you're glad she's back, but next time I will. I will even go as far as to revoke your visiting privileges if you try and make this personal for me again."  
  
Will shuddered, half-shocked at Michael's harshness.  
  
"Do you understand this, Will? Because I'm not joking around here."  
  
"Y~yes~~~yes I do, Director Vaughn."  
  
Vaughn was shocked by the formality of the answer and stammered. "Uh~~~good."  
  
Will joined Vaughn at his side and gazed into the glass wall which was actually the window to the intensive care unit, currently occupied by Weiss.  
  
"How's he doing?" Will inquired quietly.  
  
"He's actually alive under all that," Michael replied almost comically. "But there's more chance of him dying under all that if he stays any longer in that coma."  
  
Will watched as a tear spilled down Vaughn's cheek.  
  
"I want to believe that it wasn't Sydney that shot Weiss and put him on that bed," Vaughn admitted, leaning his forehead against the window pane. "I want to believe it just as much as you do. But I can't. I took Syd to Santa Barbara. I proposed into her brown eyes. And she's the one who shot me in the leg and gave order to torture my wife."  
  
"Vaughn, if you have that faith in her then let me work on it," Will protested to Vaughn who was shaking his head. "Give me some time before you possibly put an innocent woman in pain."  
  
"She's still going to undergo the surgery, will. That's the only too we've got to get the information that could be vital to finding out what happened to her, to prove her innocence~~~whether she was doubled or not."  
  
"I won't argue that," Will lamented wishing he could. "But I think she should be rewarded for coming to a decision so quickly.  
  
"Rewarded? I think she was rewarded enough that I allowed her into a hospital bed instead of a jail cell."  
  
Ooh, was this room getting colder or what?  
  
"I don't see why we can't grant her a simple request."  
  
Vaughn gave Will an angry flash of his eyes to notify him he was pushing his patience. "What does she want now, a five course dinner because the hospital food is making her sick?"  
  
"N~no, she wants a laptop."  
  
"A laptop."  
  
"Yeah. She wants more information on the surgery, like the risks so she would know whether it's better to make a will before she goes under or not," Will suggested. "I told her she can probably be briefed by you or I was suggesting I put all the information on a disk, that's where the computer comes into play."  
  
Michael's expression actually softened but what came out was cold as ice.  
  
"Bristow will be told everything she needs to know."  
  
"And who's going to decide that? The Agency?"  
  
Michael nodded.  
  
"Forget it! I don't think reasoning with you is going to do any good," Will boomed and then added, "you give the briefing"  
  
"Tippin, are you telling me what to do?" Michael inquired, almost amused.  
  
"Yeah, and if you don't, I will go to the head and tell them you're letting your personal feelings get in the way of providing any human comfort to Agent Bristow. So if you want to keep your jog, you'll learn to be comforting to Agent Bristow just like you did when you were her handler," Will commanded, leaving Vaughn in a very uncomfortable position.  
  
"Hey cheer up, Vaughn. This could be good for you," Will teased him. "You've grown into a cold six foot of hard mean muscle mass that people deal with just because they're scared what you'll do to them if they cross you. Maybe being around Syd can help you get into touch with your emotions, make you human again, not what you resemble now."  
  
"And what's that?" Michael asked before Will went out the door.  
  
A moment later Michael wished he hadn't asked. He found himself agreeing with Will's answer.  
  
A gargoyle.  
  
Okay part II is now up! YAY! Please review! I live for these! So sorry I haven't updated in forever but I will so please keep reviewing! And please also support my other fic "the other side of the story," thanks, I look forward to hearing from ya'll hope to hear from you soon  
  
Leo's l'il sista 


	3. Part III: Flashback Delivery Room

Thanks ya'll for all the great reviews! Hope you enjoy the next chapter!!!!!!!  
  
When She was Bad Leo's l'il sista  
  
Flashbacks  
  
"The Delivery Room"  
  
"Whoa? Where am I?" Sydney thought groggily as her eyes focused. Her eyes flashed open though when she saw she was not in the bed she'd been on upon returning to the naval hospital.  
  
This room was white, small and the strong smell of disinfectant indicated that she was in an even more sterile environment.  
  
She looked down at herself and realized she was in a gown, with her legs covered by a sheet, positioned in stirrups. Nurses and doctors were bunched up before her, looking expectantly.  
  
A tingling sensation entered her fingertips and spread throughout her body and gradually she felt her sense of touch and ability to move come alive.  
  
"Am I dreaming? " she thought. "Or is this real?"  
  
Suddenly Sydney felt a large pain shoot down her legs and things stopped moving in sow motion. She found herself arching back and letting out a pained groan.  
  
"Push Sydney, push!" the enthusiastic doctor told her as she struggled on the bed, her knuckled white from gripping so hard on the metal rails that lined the side of her bed.  
  
She gave another push, wailing in continual agony. It shocked her but she realized the doctor attending was a "baby doctor."  
  
So she was delivering a baby?  
  
When had that happened? God, was this a flashback?  
  
She felt a bout of nausea take over, making her even more miserable.  
  
She heard the doctor order the nurse to give her an epidural and she, who's first instinct was to fight injections, found herself giving it a go.  
  
She slowly lifted herself off the bed and allowed the gentle nurse to insert the needle into her back. She winced slightly and then laid down, enjoying the comfort the medicine had provided almost instantly.  
  
"Okay Agent Bristow, we're almost there," the doctor crooned. "Just a few more good pushes and you'll be a new mother."  
  
Sydney's lips pulled into a smile but something didn't feel right. She felt that somewhere within her being that she should feel joy but she didn't feel it, she couldn't find the joy she should feel in being a mother.  
  
A moment later, she understood why.  
  
Standing outside of the room, watching her was Vaughn and a woman she didn't recognize. He looked pained as well. Not the proud-father expression she was expecting.  
  
A cold sensation swallowed her and her heart filled with dread.  
  
Unless Vaughn wasn't the father.  
  
But he was standing there and she wanted to believe she could trust her memory when it told her that she's only gotten under the covers with Vaughn. That it was only with him that she could have had such a healthy pregnancy.  
  
She felt another bout of pain, but before it got too intense for her, she felt a warm squeeze.  
  
She turned her head and was awashed with relief.  
  
It was her dad.  
  
And her heart leapt and fell at the same time when she looked on the other side and saw someone who looked vaguely like Agent Jim Lennox.  
  
Oh god, could this be the man she'd conceived with? Was this the father of her child?  
  
"Sydney, you hanging in there?"  
  
"Uh~yeah," she murmured, out of breath.  
  
"Well, you're doing great, just hang in there," he urged her while Jim gently wiped the sweat from her fore head.  
  
"Just one more good push, Syd," Lennox urged her, giving her a gentle smile.  
  
"I, God, I don't know if I can."  
  
"No, none of that Syd, you know you can do anything you set your mind to," he scolded her, his smile never failing.  
  
Sydney decided against saying anything. She saw he was on duty from the way he was dressed, only presently his jacket and bade was set on a nearby chair and the sleeves of his crisp white shirt were rolled up.  
  
God, was this guy the boyfriend Vaughn had been referring to? Was Lennox the "evil one?" It didn't seem possible. If he really was as evil as Michael thought she was, she didn't think the CIA would have let him be present, even if it was for the birth of his first child.  
  
But Sydney couldn't ponder that anymore because she felt the body move and she had to put all her concentration on forcing the baby out of her body.  
  
"Ugh. Why couldn't you get me a ceaserean section?" Sydney griped as she pushed with all the strength she had left.  
  
A second later she was rewarded with a loud wailing.  
  
It was the first cry of her baby and she didn't have to hear it from the doctor to know she had a daughter, a healthy daughter,  
  
She was helped to sit up because she had been drained of strength and couldn't do it herself. She felt Lennox squeeze her shoulder as she watched the doctor cleanse her baby girl who was very pink and chubby.  
  
"Syd, would you like to hold the baby?" she was asked but she felt herself fall instead, her father and a concerned Lennox grew fuzzier and fuzzier until she couldn't see them anymore.  
  
She then found herself coming to but none of the surrounding struck her as being familiar.  
  
This room seemed to be recovery. She found she was no longer in pain. In fact she didn't feel much of anything at all.  
  
She decided to pull herself up and when she turned her head, she saw a fuzzy figure sitting in the chair near her.  
  
As her eyes focused, she could tell the figure had dark brown hair, piercing green eyes and his mouth was in a tight line.  
  
Michael C. Vaughn.  
  
"M~Michael?" she murmured, not sure if it was audible enough until Vaughn nodded his head. He lurched his hands forward as if to embrace her but pulled back to her disappointment and the pain was clear in his eyes.  
  
"H~hi Syd," he managed to let out with a smile that disappeared the next second. "I~I know you didn't expect me to show."  
  
"Of course I did!" Sydney thought, frustrated that she couldn't say it. She was feeling trapped in her body, like she was experiencing it, only she could do nothing to change the past. But now she knew Michael was the father. It alluded her that she'd been able to create a little life with the man she loved.  
  
The next second, she found herself saying something she couldn't believe.  
  
"Of course you cam. You are the one who got me pregnant, the father of my daughter though you certainly weren't there fore me those eight months. But that shouldn't surprise me. Your father didn't stick around either, did he?"  
  
"S~Syd, that's cold and besides, you know that is not the way it happened, but it seems these days your mind immediately sucks out the happiness of everything," Michael cursed, shaking his head sadly.  
  
"Save me the dramatics, will you Vaughn? I remember seeing my father and Jim holding my hand, helping me welcome my baby into this world," Sydney stated with a smile, emphasizing Agent Lennox's presence by using his first name then shot Michael a cold look. "I didn't see you in the delivery room."  
  
Michael looked at a loss, as though not sure if he should be sorry that Sydney was in this condition or tell her off for her hitting his major nerves.  
  
"You're in custody, Sydney. But I know you still remember the CIA policy, I'm not allowed to be around you, not since you signed that paper," he complained, his eyes burning with tears that were pooling right behind his eyes. "Jack and Agent Lennox were there because you requested their presence. You also requested you didn't want me there."  
  
She watched in horror. She didn't remember the episode and how she knew why her subconcious had consciously decided to block it out.  
  
"Yeah, that's right. You know you'd rather be with that little wifey of yours. And besides you couldn't stand all the blood. I didn't think for a moment you wouldn't want to watch me writhe in pain."  
  
"Actually I did mind. I didn't want to watch you in agony. And of course I wasn't grossed out. It was the birth of my child and because of you, I was forced to watch it through a pane of bullet-proof glass. I didn't even hear her first cry and I was right there!"  
  
Sydney didn't respond, momentarily eaten with guilt and asked instead, "have you seen her?"  
  
"Yeah," he beamed, his face spread with a shadow of fatherly pride he was trying to hide under his mean façade without success. "She's so innocent and loving, it's amazing she came out of you."  
  
"Well, I wasn't always this way," Sydney shrugged, a hint of a smile flashing across her face. "I used to be the woman that you loved."  
  
"What are you saying? You mean I still love you. You're the one who fell out of love with me!"  
  
She watched herself not reply again and she wished she could smack herself silly. This was the perfect moment to reconcile with him! What was she doing? This Sydney wouldn't speak her mind or say what she felt.  
  
This Sydney did not like Michael Vaughn.  
  
But she was relieved when her mind finally felt in sync with this Sydney as they both agreed this was a good moment to give Vaughn one of her famous angsty stares.  
  
For a moment things seemed normal and seeing Vaughn reply with his own smile filled her with a feeling she'd been deprived of too long.  
  
But in the next moment, the feeling was shattered. She watched in horror as an attractive young woman with blond hair entered the room, carrying a new born in her arms.  
  
"W~who is that?" Sydney gasped as the Sydney in the dream demanded, "what is she doing here?"  
  
"You know exactly what she's doing here. After all my daughter is coming home with me," Vaughn reminded her, a little too bossily for her taste. "And I think as her surrogate mother, they should meet."  
  
"S~surrogate," Sydney screamed as though she hadn't known about it! She found herself watching an agent or two come into the room to hold her back while Michael and his wife left with her daughter in their arms, the chemistry so real anybody would have percieved the child was their own.  
  
Michael gave her a wistful glance, knowing the pain Syd must be feeling, since their dream had been to raise a child together and now it had been plain torn apart.  
  
"Agent Bristow, we're going to put you under now," an evil doctor smiled as he reached for her arm. "And don't' worry, when you wake up you'll be back in the safety of Irina's company."  
  
"N~NO!!!" she screamed as the doctor strapped her down to keep her from thrashing and another doctor neared a mask towards her face. "NO!!! VAUGHN! VAUGHN!!!!!"  
  
Well well well! What the hell happened here? I guess you wont' know till next chapter! Please Review and I will write! Okay! Thanks for all the support, lataz, Kris 


	4. Reuniting with An Old friend

Yo! Thanks for your reviews! I have heard you just been having issues with my parents where they like that I like to write but I can't do it in the house! Go figure!!!  
  
And just to prove to ya'll I'm an S/V Shipper the new name is .Total Vaughn Lover and that basically means I want Vaughn to be happy cause I love him so much and if it cant be with me then of course it has to be with Syd!!!!!!!  
  
Any who! Finally, I've gotten a new episode for ya!  
  
When She Was Bad Total Vaughn Lover  
  
Reuniting with An Old Friend  
  
Sydney woke up with a start, and this time things looked familiar. She was lying on the same bed, only hostile Vaughn wasn't there and to her dismay, neither was Will, the only friend she had left in the world.  
  
She pulled herself up and put a palm to her sweat-drenched forehead and concluded that it was because of the impact of the nightmare, not an illness.  
  
She found a bag set at the foot of her bed and reached for it. Inside she found a few belongings that could have easily belonged to her.  
  
She reached for her walled, a girly one with a rabbit holding a huge pocket watch embroderied on it, to prove her obsession with "Alice in the Wonderland." She place two of her fingers onto the fuzziness and was soothed.  
  
She would find out what happened with Michael, but it would have to stay on the back burner for now. First she would have to get better and being able to touch things that had once had value for her seemed to be working very well.  
  
She gingerly pulled it open, as though afraid that in two years, the leather could have worn so much that it would crumble in her hands.  
  
But what crumbled wasn't the leather, it was her.  
  
She found the wallet contained not money but pictures. Pictures of when things were all right.  
  
The first one was of when she'd played in a hockey game with Vaughn, and then another picture was of her and Vaughn, in casual clothes, his arms around her, their cheeks nuzzled against each other.  
  
She let out a hard cough, from trying to keep her tears back as the memory attached to the photograph crystallized in her mind.  
She'd always been the immature one and her handler Vaughn had first disapproved of her and had made it his business to mold the college girl who worked for a government job as a part time to become a class A double agent for the CIA.  
  
But things had flipped once they'd become open with their feelings and kissed for the first time on what remained after they'd taken down SD- 6. She'd had to force him out of bed and go to work, she'd had to fight him from putting his arms around her during work, or give her an impulsive kiss the moment she returned to the Joint Task Force and his bruteness was worse the more dangerous the mission had been.  
  
They'd almost been conjoined.  
  
Now he couldn't wait to get away from her and when he was around, he only provided crude comments, nasty looks and holds of restraints when he didn't order his staf to do it.  
  
She flipped through a few more couple photos and then came to one that made her pain even worse.  
  
It was a photo of Weiss and Vaughn. Eric with his cheery expression , his arm around Vaughn's neck in a headlock, giving him a noogie.  
  
And Vaughn wore an expression complimentary of the pain from the headlock and the grinding of his best friend's knuckles into his head.  
  
But despite that, they were happy, indeniably happy.  
  
And it hit her hard when she remembered what Vaughn had said.  
  
She'd shot Weiss, Vaughn, Vaughn's wife and Will, yet Weiss hadn't made it up and bounced back like the other two.  
  
She'd put her best agent friend in a coma.  
  
And she couldn't blame Vaughn for holding her responsible. After he'd witnessed her murder his wife in cold blood.  
  
"Agent Bristow, are you awake?"  
  
"Y~yeah," Sydney replied.  
  
"Have you received your dinner yet?" the nurse inquired and Sydney began mumbling, "no, I don't think so," when her eyes fell on the tray of food sitting on her bedside table.  
  
"I guess I was asleep when they brought it in," she shrugged just as a bout of nausea overswept her and forced her down against the pillow.  
  
"That's all right," she told her sweetly as she laid a hand against her forehead. "Would you like me to bring some more in?"  
  
Sydney stared dumbfounded at the nurse, flattered and shocked at the same time by her unexpected kindness. No one had treated her like a normal being since they'd heard about what a monster she had become. She assumed this wasn't going to be her regular nurse and therefore wasn't informed of her so-called behavior during her missing years. She was a bit saddened by that. She wanted despereately to believe that at least one person who heard her story would give her the benefit of the doubt and wait for memories to resurface. I mean, she was agreeing to the surgery, how could they even think she was going against them.  
  
She glanced at the food and gagged. Her thoughts made her stomach turn. She lied back down, trying to quell her sick stomach. "No, I don't think I'll be able to hold anything down."  
  
"Okay," the nurse nodded then she went out the room. When she returned she was dragging an I.V stand with her. "We'll put this in you to keep you hydrated. It'll help with the nausea," she crooned, then went out plugging the needed into the plug already attached to Sydney's body.  
  
She watched the medicine start dripping and in a matter of moment she found herself feeling better.  
  
"Well the glow is certainly returning to your skin. I think you'll be fine. And this is normal, it's probably because the way everything has changed in what feels like a day. You've obviously had the wind knocked out of you and it's going to take a few days to be yourself again. Plus your memory gap is driving you out of your mind."  
  
Sydney winced. She hadn't expected the nurse to know all that, and she certainly hadn't expected her to be so blunt yet understanding. 'Yeah, you're right about that."  
  
"Just take it easy, Agent Bristow, everything will slowly start to make sense," she cooed, and Sydney really had to fight herself not to brush away the nurse's gentle touch or scream that missing five years of her life was something she was never going to understand. But then she was proud of herself that she had controlled herself because that made asking her next question a lot easier.  
  
"Um~~~Nurse?"  
  
She paused in her tracks and turned her head. "Yes, Sydney?"  
  
"H~How long have you been here?"  
  
"At the Naval Hospital? A good five years. I think, why do you ask?" she asked with a smile.  
  
"Can you do me a favor/" she asked the nurse, trying to sound like it was natural of Sydney Bristow to ask things of people she'd just met.  
  
"Um~~~sure. I'll do my best."  
  
Sydney took a deep breath then explained the nightmare she'd just had to the nurse without doing it in one breath.  
  
The nurse studied her mildly with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry to hear that. You must have been pretty shaken up. I know how hostile Agent Vaughn has been to you. He's usually such a nice man, I remember him coming in for the virus he contracted about five years ago. And now he's a changed man."  
  
"Thank you. And what I would like you to do for me is find out if the dream was real. I think it's a flashback and that could be a key to unlocking my other memories. I need to know if I had a baby with Vaughn," she begged in an exasperated voice.  
  
The nurse stared hard at her patient and Sydney was sure she could feel her pain. But then she bit her lip and Sydney was overcome with a feeling of dread. "I cannot believe this Sydney," she lamented, her expression becoming hard. "The first thing you ask me to help you with and I can't do it."  
  
"W~what do you mean?"  
  
"I~I am not allowed to give you any information this hospital has during the time of our disappearance. And besides, the CIA has taken custody of your records. There probably isn't a shred of information on you out there that hasn't been either protected or dissected," she informed her, but her tone suggested she didn't believe this treatment was fair.  
  
"U~under who's orders?" Sydney stammered, her voice trembling. She was 100% sure she already knew the answer to that question.  
  
"It was not in effect till Vaughn became the Director the Joint Task Force two Mays ago.  
  
"In 2005," Sydney stated and the nurse nodded her head.  
  
"I would help you out, you know I would," the nurse protested and grabbed Sydney's hand. "I've see how cerebretolosis works and I know they're threatening you with it. I don't want that to happen to you."  
  
Sydney was awashed with warmth. She squeezed the nurses's hand and forced a smile onto her otherwise gaunt expression. "I know you would and I really appreciate it, but I wouldn't put you in that position, I don't know what Mich~~~ I mean Director Vaughn would do if he found out. His wrath is because of me. I don't' want you going through what I'm going through."  
  
She smiled at Sydney's effort to placate her feelings when it was she who should be doing it for her. "Ms. Bristow, I've heard the terrible things the CIA thinks you have done, but anybody who sits down with you and gets to know you can't possibly believe these stories. Agent Vaughn is going to really kick himself when he realizes that you have done nothing and he destroyed your life for nothing."  
  
"I don't' think so," she cut in, looking very uncomfortable. She stared down at her hands that were shaking as though she'd gone to play in the snow without gloves~~~for hours. "Michael is over me. He proposed to me but I said no. so then he moved on and gave himself to somebody else. He's not about to give me any sympathy, not when he's so sure I heedlessly threw away his heart."  
  
"But you didn't, did you?" the nurse inquired cautiously, after waiting a beat, as though she wasn't sure of Sydney's innocence and afraid of what her answer would be.  
  
"N~No, I mean, I'm still hurt by him and I can't believe I would have ever done that. If I could change it now, I would," Sydney added quietly.  
  
And all sound died in the room.  
  
The nurse stretched a tissue towards her and Sydney took it and dabbed her eyes with it.  
  
"Sorry, I~~~I don't understand any of this. It hurts. Instead of getting compassion from my old friend I'm taken in custody by my boyfriend, and I find out I have no friend," she huffed, trying to control herself.  
  
"Don't' talk like that, Sydney," she scolded her soothingly. "Things are, excuse my unprofessionalim, "wacked." You are undoubtedly the victim of this whole mess but so are your friends. They thought you were dead. I know you don't like to hear this but it's going to take time for everybody to return to normal again."  
  
Sydney was so happy that she could feel her tears burning behind her eyes. She had to fight herself not to hug the gentle nurse and bawl into her shoulder. Miraculously, she restrained herself to just saying, "I know you're right."  
  
The nurse watched her for another moment, wondering if it was safe for her to leave.  
  
Fortunately all of Sydney's smiles looked genuine.  
  
"Well enough of this tonight. You should get some rest," she told her as she gently tucked her patient back in her covers.  
  
"I'm not sure I want to do that," she griped, looking straight up at the ceiling. "Knowing my luck, I'll have another nightmare."  
  
The nurse gave her an understanding expression. "It's probably your mind seeing flashbacks with some things that feel almost tangible. I'm sure you'll be able to see some kind of psychiatrist for dream therapy. But until then, would you like me to go get you something to help you sleep?"  
  
"I don't think that will help," Sydney groaned, keeping her gaze low. But then she raised her head and looked up at her with hopeful eyes. "But there is one other thing you can do for me."  
  
The nurse paused in her tracks and flipped around to study Sydney who was looking at her as though she was her last hope.  
  
She didn't feel she could deny her anything else.  
  
"I'll see what I can do."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"I'm good from here," Sydney told the nurse who was pushing her in a wheelchair. They'd reached the entrance the Intensive Care Unit.  
  
"Are you sure?" she asked worriedly, daring her head in all direction as though she were expecting to find someone lurking about at 1:00 in the morning.  
  
"Yeah, I mean, you can stay if you have to. Will you get in trouble if you leave me here by myself?" she inquired, trying not to sound like she was trying to get her in trouble.  
  
"Oh, that's not the problem, it's just~~~well, do you know what to expect? Has anybody briefed you on what happened?"  
  
"Vaughn put that in the meanest words possible, though I suppose I can't say mcuh, considering I'm the one who~~~shot him," she put in coldly, trying to her voice from wavering. If the nurse thought she wasn't emotionally coherent, she might make her go back to bed. "I heard that the doctors got the bullet out but that he never woke up from the surgery."  
  
"Exactly," she agreed then bit her lip. "I guess I can't stop you. You sure you want to do this?"  
  
Sydney nodded her head before she had a chance to hesitate.  
  
"Okay," the nurse sighed with reluctance and opened the door and wheeled her in. she went to grab a chart that hanging on the nearest door, checked the monitors that pertained to door 2 then jotted down on the clipboard. "There's a window right there, just pull the curtain back."  
  
Sydney did as she was told, not looking into the window until she'd pulled it as far as it would go. But when she did, she wished she didn't.  
  
"Oh my god," she gasped, her hand flew to her mouth, her chest hurt from the effort of suppressing her scream. Tears instantly sprang to her eyes when she laid her eyes on Weiss.  
  
He was lying down, confined to his bed. A tube was shoved down his throat and other wires and tubes were attached to other aspects of his body. His eyes were closed and there was a bruise on his eye and jawline that hadn't healed yet. And the rest of him was pale. The funny man was gone from him now, his chest moving up and down was the only way to tell Eric Weiss was still alive.  
  
"He's been in a coma for two years," she informed Sydney as she raised herself out of the seat and pressed her palms against the glass. "His brain is still functioning correctly which is a miracle, but a miracle is going to hold out for only so long."  
  
"So the longer he stays this way, the more likely it is that he'll never wake up," Sydney cut in, not taking her eyes off her friend.  
  
"I'm afraid that's true."  
  
Sydney laid her forehead against the glass and took a few deep breaths, trying to prevent the hyperventilation she felt coming on.  
  
"Sydney, would you like to return to your room?" the nurse asked quietly, taking hold of the handles of the wheelchair, positioning it so she could take a seat.  
  
Sydney stayed quiet for another second, trying to gather her thoughts but her head hurt, but not as nearly as her heart. She knew this was what she'd expected to see but seeing it first hand was not something she'd been as emotionally prepared for as she thought she was.  
  
"Ms. Bristow?"  
  
"No," she shot out, more harshly than she'd intended. She didn't want to go back, not just yet, she still has unfinished business and she was going to go through with it, no matter how much pain it caused her. "I want to go inside."  
  
"What!" she asked alarmed. "Sydney, you sure you want to do that? Haven't you seen enough? Why in the world would you want to go in there?" she hissed.  
  
"I shot that man and I put him in that bed. I have no right to be scared of him. Besides, there's something I have to say~~~while he's still alive," Sydney informed her, a look on her face that she was on mission.  
  
"Agent Bristow, Agent Weiss is in isolation for a reason. His body is out of his control. We don't even know if his immune system is working, and your going in there can introduce foreign bacteria that could kill him and he's been giving off something in that room, and you might contract something deadly from the air. I'm not going to take that chance, not on my watch," she commanded angrily. And for a moment Sydney thought the nurse was going to try and wrestle her into her chair.  
  
"Nurse, I need to talk to him okay? I don't' know what good it's going to do but I'm not going to know until I give it a try~~~he's my friend, the best friend of the man I love. I just need five minutes. Please, I'll take all the precautionary measures to protect myself from him and protect him from my varmints. I promise, just~~~please, let me see him."  
  
Sydney was begging now and the nurse couldn't say no.  
  
"There's a gown in the closet, grab that, a mask, and some gloves and take this," she added, and handed the clipboard to her. "I don't know if that's going to do anything just uh~~~read through it. It might trigger a memory. Just don't' tell anyone. I don't care if I get in trouble, the CIA won't come after me, but they already have a yearing to torture you, and things are bad enough between you and Agent Vaughn. I'm not here to make things worse."  
  
"I don't' care if I get in trouble. I need to be alone with Weiss and this might be my only chance," she shrugged as she pulled the uniform on. She then headed to the door.  
  
"I've got rounds, I'll be back in fifteen minutes. I expect youll be done by then. It'll give me time to get you settled back into bed and back to what I'm supposed to be doing by the time the night shift comes in," she hinted.  
  
"Thanks," she murmured before she went through the door and the nurse nodded, changed the sign to "attending," before she left the room to do her nightly visits.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Hey Weiss. I don't know if you can hear me but I just had to come see you," she greeted as she inched toward his bed. "I'm just going to take this seat here, okay? Don't be made, I'm not here to shoot you again."  
  
"Now I know why Vaughn was so mad. Look at what I did to you! I presume I would have done the same thing if someone had killed Vaughn before my eyes."  
  
"I don't know what I was thinking when I did this to you and you're probably going to think I'm cold and uncaring when I say this but I don't remember this! I don't' remember anything! I don't know how to apologize to you because I'm not sure what to say, especially since I don't know why I did it.'  
  
"No, don't' think that! I do feel for you! It couldn't' have been me. I would never have done this. You know how life was. My father was not only an old friend of Sloane's, an agent of SD-6, but the reason why my life is such a nightmare. And then my mother was one of the biggest terrorists of all. I was surprised she hadn't lied about being biologically related to me."  
  
"And it wasn't until I met you, Vaughn, Carried, Marshall and heaven forbid, Kendall, that I had a smidgen of hope that things would be okay again."  
  
"Yeah, you do know how much I loved Vaughn, with his handsome face, lopsided grin, his brilliant light eyes, his absolutely kissable lips. And then there was his sweetness, his instinct to protect, his gift of comforting and his ability to give me a love that I didn't think I could find on this earth~~~"  
  
"No, don't be sorry, Weiss. I'm okay, I really am. It's just going to take a little getting used to. After all, Vaughn was my right hand, my partner~~~my soulmate."  
  
"So why did it change, Eric? Why am I here, forced to accept things I have no recollection of ever-happening? Vaughn told me he proposed to me and that I rejected him, but that can't be true~~~you know how in love with him I was."  
  
"Okay, forget it. I'll save that story for when you're awake and you can give mea actual feedback. Just tell me that you're still my friend. I need to know. You would be one of the precious few I still have left, well two to be exact. The only other one I know of is Will. Yeah~~~right. The other guy I shot at. And my parents don't' count, though I'd like to see them, they wouldn't be much of a friend to anyone, unless you had something they wanted, then they'll be perfect angels until they pull the biggest betrayal of all. Hmm~~~maybe Marshall would be number three, since I did nothing to him, assuming he's still at the Agency."  
  
"You want to know why I'm so bitter?! It's because everybody is accusing me of doing things that I don't' know about and then they accuse me of lying to them when I'm really telling them the truth!"  
  
"I'm sorry, I just don't' know what to do. It's hard to believe you're alive under all that. But I'm so thankful you are. Though I know I say I don't know what I did, in no way excuses what I've done to you~~~to all of you."  
  
"And I'm sorry. Next time we meet, I hope I'll be able to figure out everything , all that I've forgotten about the last five years."  
  
"Then maybe we can all find some peace."  
  
"You deserve it." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
So what did ya think? Yeah, that was Syd talking to a incapacitated Weiss. And of course since he can't talk, it was a one-sided conversation! You will not believe what is going to happen next..Will is still trying to save Syd's life while Vaughn~~~well, he's going to do something like never before!!!  
  
And you thought the Asian Dentist was bad!!!!!  
  
Oh another note, I'll be updating "The Other Side of the Story," "For better or worse till the NSC do us part (which is going to go into it's first episode of S/V! YAY Maybe I'll get more reviews that way!) and for your Vartan fans, I will update my fic "Never Been Pregnant," good o'l Sam being not only a husband but soon-to-be father, with its' own little twist!!!  
  
So look for those, normal disclaimers apply and please continue to review!!!!!!!  
  
Total Vaughn Lover 


	5. PART V: This is not a nightmarethis is l...

Total Vaughn Lover When She was Bad  
  
"This is not a nightmare~~~this is life"  
  
Author's note: Hey! Just wanted to say thanks for all your wonderful reviews and I am so sorry I couldn't deliver any earlier. Hope you will keep reading my fic and keep the feedback coming! Thanks, and without further ado~~~~~  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
(Three weeks later)  
  
"Damn!" Will cursed as he studied the screen on his computer. "Dead- ended again." He stared at the picture of "Tobias Seacrest: Berkeley Graduate, a physician at Sacred Heart Hospital, GA" and frowned.  
  
This was supposedly the last person to see Sydney before she'd gotten on the airplane and mysteriously disappeared for two years. In other words, his best bet at getting his best friend out of the mess she was in.  
  
He positioned his pen over "Dr. Seacrest," overcome with a feeling that he shouldn't cross him off of his list just yet. This man had to know something. He just had to. Sydney's life depended on it!  
  
If only he could talk to the doctor, but with the way Director Vaughn was working him these days, the only way he could do it was to get a warrant, and permission from the CIA to reveal to him that his former "girl," was back on mainland.  
  
There was only one thing holding him back. In order to get a go on the warrant, he had to get Vaughn's permission. And Sydney's ex was upset enough all ready. Will shuddered. If Vaughn ever got wind that he was doing some investigating on his own, he would swipe his badge and take away his clearance faster than he could say, "you're fired."  
  
Then he wouldn't be able to do anything for Sydney and he certainly didn't want to lose this job, which he had come to like after taking some getting used to.  
  
"Charlie Horse" is in position," a young brunette stated as she entered the main cabin to join Will. "We should be getting a call from them anytime soon."  
  
Will just sat there, typing in another informant's name as though he was clearly dismissing her.  
  
"Uh~~~ "Scientist," do you copy?"  
  
"Uh, right~~~copy that," Will shot out immediately upon hearing his code name. He sat upright in his seat then changed his current screen to one that displayed a blue print of the building being infilitrated in real time.  
  
"Um~~~great."  
  
Will realized a second later that there was nobody on the line. He tapped his fingers on the desk like object before him and then raised his head to acknowledge his partner who was sitting across from him. "Helen, hey, didn't hear you come in."  
  
"I figured that much," she snickered. She studied Will's forlorn reaction and added in a gentle tone, "you seem to have a lot on your mind."  
  
"Y~Yeah." He muttered this under his breath, keeping his gaze off his partner who was chewing annoyingly on a finger nail. He gave her a look. She obviously didn't' get that he wasn't in the mood for being taunted or that he wanted to be left alone.  
  
"Look Will~~~I know what's going on in your life," she blew out in a breath. Will raised his head to give her a "really? Do tell," look.  
  
"Sydney's back and you're not sure what to believe. Whether she really doesn't remember what happened during those two years, or if she really is a monster, waiting for the perfect time to make her next~~~"  
  
"She's not a monster!" he cut in so harshly tat Helen immediately cut herself off and said nothing more. "And I do know what I believe~~~I know she's innocent."  
  
Helen slumped in her seat and brought up a satellite feed on her lap top then silently went about positioning her headphones over her ears.  
  
Will felt a bit guilty for silencing her but he just didn't have the strength to deal with her on top of everything else. He decided to go back to what he was doing. "Okay," he murmured as he pulled out his "secret," list. It was time to try another alias.  
  
"I know what you're doing Will," Helen announced suddenly in an accusatory tone which startled Will so much that he keyed in the wrong password. A loud beep followed with a message warning him that his computer would be traced in the next thirty seconds.  
  
"Shit!" he cursed, then hurridely logged off his computer before he pulled the power plug to shut down his computer. He let out a relieved breath, at the same time thinking of how to strangle his ditzy partner. She's just gotten him locked out of the secured website for 72 hours. "Damn it, Helen!"  
  
"Sorry, what did I do?"  
  
"You locked me out of the system, that's what! I mean you said you knew what I was doing. And that means you know that if I screw up the password that I can't get back into the system for plus seventy two hours! And with the way things are going with Vaughn, I don't know how much time to prove Sydney's innocence before he does something to her!"  
  
Helen remained silent and just spent a minute studying him, debating on whether she should say something. In the end she said, "well that's what you get for letting your mind wander when you're supposed to be fixed on a mission."  
  
Will shot her a death glare.  
  
"Okay, okay~~~I didn't mean that," Helen put in quickly, raising her hands to shield her from his rage. "But what are you going to tell Vaughn when he calls in, checking up on us to make sure we're not~~~you know."  
  
There was a lot of innuendo in her sultry comment that made a guy look back at a woman twice. He couldn't believe this girl! Of all time to say that! Here he was, fighting for his best friend's life and all she could think of was ~~~ "that?"  
  
Will gave her a weak smile which was a pathetic response to her vibrant smile that clearly said, "I want you." Sure, Helen was attractive and he could certainly understand what Vaughn had been going through when he'd been Sydney's handler, unable to concentrate on the task at hand because his asset was so attractive.  
  
But still, there were appropriate time for those things and now certainly wasn't one of those times.  
  
"Helen," Will began, planning out carefully what he was going to say as he squeezed her baby-soft hands. "You are very beautiful and fun to be with and~~~I don't think I have to tell you that I like you~~~a lot."  
  
She smiled appreciatively, her large eyes reflecting light as though they were huge balls of crystal.  
  
"But there are time for these kind of things, when I can respond with the same feelings for the intensity that you are giving me," Will put in, becoming a bit more stern. "And now is not one of those times."  
  
"Well you're supposed to be working but~~~you're not. You're in fact doing exactly what you're not supposed to do," Helen pouted and for a second will thought she might made a call to Director Vaughn to spit him.  
  
"Helen~~~before you make any rash decisions like calling the Director, think about what I'm doing for a second, or actually why I'm doing it."  
  
"I know, all right. The world is turning against the former object of your affection and you've made it your duty to become her one-man army," she groaned, rolling her eyes with disdain.  
  
"Exactly, I'm trying to defend my best friend. Now, do you see anything wrong with that?"  
  
Helen stared at her screen, thinking, or appearing as if she were thinking just to escalate the tension in the room which was already thick enough to suffocate Will's remaining brain cells.  
  
"I never said there was anything wrong with that," she finally pronounced after the agonizing pause. "Actually it proves what a sweetie you are."  
  
"Oh~~~thanks, I guess," Will stammered. Flirtation wasn't exactly what he was going for. He would have settled for blunt understanding.  
  
"And I might consider to not only keep this investigation of yours under wraps, but assist you with your investigation and any~~~other services~~~I can offer," she crooned as she put her lap top in the seat next to hers then rose to her feet only to go about five feet to reach Will's seat. "If you'll cooperate."  
  
Will stared into her eyes that were like melted honey and gave up on some of his resistance. "What do I have to do?"  
  
"Just give me one kiss," she teased him as she leaned over him, giving him an adequate amount of viewing of her cleavage. "One and I'll leave you alone till the end of the mission."  
  
Will felt her husky breath near his earlobe and chills went down his spine. "Sure you'll hold out that long? That's at least another sixteen hours," he teased back as she lowered herself and propped her elbows onto his knees.  
  
"I know I can. The question always seems to be, can you?"  
  
That did it for Will. Huskiness in a woman's voice created was to distract a man's judgement and confused their senses.  
  
He glanced at the screen for one more second. Hmm~~~could he kiss this girl and not get a call during an intense wrestling of tongues?  
  
Helen looked at him expectantly, pushing her hair behind her ears, a bewitching smile spread on her coy expression. And her tangy citrusy after spray tingled his nerves in a way that made his brain turn to mush.  
  
"I guess one kiss couldn't hurt," he shrugged as he folded the screen down to his computer. "It's not like I'm doing anything else."  
  
"Yeah~~~you're locked out of the Witness Protection system for 72 hours anyway.~~~"  
  
"Thanks to you."  
  
She pushed away the sting from that comment and pulled herself up and put her arms around his neck. His arms went around her waist and he pulled her closer to him. "It's not a big deal," she stated, but her voice was full of innuendo. "It's just to waste time."  
  
"Exactly," he agreed as his lips brushed against her full wet ones. "Just to waste time~~~"  
  
Then they kissed and their bodies became entangled. He found himself rolling onto the floor with her landing on top of him, still feverishly glued to his lips. She ran her hand through his tuft of spiked hair as he tousled her strands in return. After another second he had to catch his breath and he pulled away from her. Helen detangled her limbs from Will's body and laid down next to him, giggled, looking totally flushed.  
  
"What a kiss, Mr. Tipping," she grinned.  
  
"Yeah, I get that all the time," he chuckled then held a hand out to her and helped her up. That's when he realized the buttons of her shirt had come undone.  
  
"Oh god," she groaned, her sultryness replaced by humiliation.  
  
"Nah, don't worry about it, I'm not offended. I'm just glad we weren't wired. You know what Vaughn'll say if we damaged our laptops?" Will assured Helen who suddenly looked completely mortified. "Sorry, you want me to help you with those?"  
  
"Are you going to button them or unbotton them?" she whispered, almost flirtatiously, as though that shy girl thing was just an act.  
  
"Whichever you prefer," he shrugged like the gentleman he was. "Personally I don't care either way."  
  
Helen's cheeks flushed to a dark peach, the way they did when she was aroused. She almost took him up on his offer then decided against it. "Why don't you button them up for now. I want to keep you guessing."  
  
"Fair enough," he replied with not a smidgen of disappointment. He fumbled with the futtons because the shirt was refusing to close over her developed chest. He thought about asking how she'd managed to do so in the first place. It was either that or ripping the seams of her shirt.  
  
"Scientist, Scien~tist, d~do you c~copy?"  
  
Will stared at his fingers that were starting to tremble. Helen took hold of his hands and gave him a small smile. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it," she mouthed to him as she walked back over to her computer and by the time she'd sat down, her shirt was buttoned without any bulges of visible stretching of the material. God, he chocked it up to it being a female skill  
  
"Scient, Scientist, this is Base Ops. Do you copy?"  
  
Base ops? What had happened to "Charlie Horse?"  
  
Will exchanged a look with Helen who looked just as bewildered as he was.  
  
Will attached the headset to his ears and pushed a button. "Um~~~this is Scientist."  
  
"Scientist, this is Base ops," replied a voice that sounded like Marshall. " We've received a phonecall from the naval facility, specifically asking for you."  
  
"That's fine. But what happened to "Charlie Horse?"  
  
"Um, we lost reception feed with them and we're working on it right now. Actually, I am since you know, I'm the tech guy, anyway, I thought you'd have them on your screen, or did you lost the satellite feed, because then we have to call Vaughn and he's so unhappy right now with the whole Sydney~~~"  
  
"It's okay. I've got it. I just strayed from my screen for a second," he admitted, not knowing how else to put it. And like he predicted, Helen gave him a questioning glance.  
  
"Okay~~" then what Will heard next gave him a spine-tingling chill. "Scientist," is there anyone else on this frequency?"  
  
"I think so. I mean everybody who's a part of this mission, why?"  
  
"The only one I'm concerned about is the one sitting across from you. I'm calling you on a private line here, that's not tapped. But if "Assistant" is on this line, I need you to get her off~~~now."  
  
Will covered his mouthpiece and looked over at the brunette. He was sure she was not going to like what she said.  
  
"Assistant," I need you to disconnect from my frequency."  
  
"Marshall is going to route you to a different line so you can pick up in case "Charlie Horse," reaches out for us. But for right now, we're strictly observant. Go ahead and pull up your satellite feed if you haven't already, you'll be able to get in since I'm logging out," Will instructed her as he typed into his screen while Helen strictly observed her partner's actions, confused.  
  
"No, wait a second. Tell me what is going on," she pleaded. "These are not the orders I received. Will!"  
  
"Just do it! Helen, please. This could be an important phonecall," he cut in, his voice very brisk.  
  
"Will, tell me right now or I am going to ask Director Vaughn for my orders."  
  
Will paused in his tracks. And he could hear Marshall had started hyperventilating on the other end. He could believe her. Actually he could but this was not the time for that. Marshall had gone through the hassle of getting through to him on a secret frequency, that alone meant the phonecall was important, and if it came from the naval hospital, he knew who it was.  
  
"Helen, sweetie. I will tell you what's going on but until I get through to the caller, all I'm going to know is that Marshall forwarded an important call to me," Will promised, though he felt he was betraying Sydney if he let someone other than Marshall in on the investigation. He couldn't say he trusted her. Yeah, he fooled around with her, but he wasn't dating her. Come to think of it, she'd wanted to hook up with Vaughn once upon a time like all the girls he'd met.  
  
But right now, he had no choice. It was telling her and saving Sydney's life, or her telling Vaughn and having his hands tied.  
  
"Will you let me take the call?"  
  
Helen finally nodded and then without another word she typed onto her keypad. "Okay, I'm in."  
  
Will nodded to her in thanks, then tried to log into the same system, he was unsuccessful. Will then put his computer into dormant mode and brought Marshall back onto the line.  
  
"Okay, she's off. Go ahead and forward him to me," he told Marshall who teased him for about five seconds about his non-relationship with Helen then connected him to the caller.  
  
Will heard about five seconds of static then a scratchy male voice finally came through. "Mr. Tippin?"  
  
Will let out a sigh of relief. It was his informant, Dr. David Miller, formerly an agent of the FBI.  
  
"Dr. Miller, so glad to hear from you, sir. How is Sydney being treated, is she being cared for? I haven't been able to get down there in the last two weeks," Will greeted as though he were talking to a good old friend. "I'm also hoping you've got something for me regarding Tobias Seacrest. I was just about to get in the system but I punched in the wrong password and you know how these systems are."  
  
"Yes, I do. Listen, I'll make a note of that and try to get you punched out, but first things first~~~I think you should know, Sydney was sedated earlier today and taken by plane to the CIA torture facility, where they tortured and gave capitol punishment to the first terrorist of the former group known as the Rapture. I don't know if you know about this. It'ss called "The Silent Night Institution."  
  
"No, I've never heard of it. What are they going to do to her? I got orders in writing telling Director Vaughn that he needs to brief her and get her some mind conditioning sessions before they can even schedule a cerebretolosis!" he hissed, his hands shaking horribly.  
  
"Apparently Vaughn doesn't believe Agent Bristow. He knows he's going too far if he says she remembers everything but he can't let go of that. Sydney isn't telling him everything she does know," Dr. Miller explained, making his voice sound hard and mechanical. "And that's why he's taking her there."  
  
"But why there? Why does he know about the Silent Night Institution?"  
  
"Be~because Vaughn was the first agent to send an inmate there," Dr. Miller clarified. "Vaughn's first assignment when he got field-rated was to bring down the big threat at the time, "The Rapture," and he did."  
  
Will couldn't put into words how horrible he felt. He had thought she'd be safe at the hospital, he had thought he'd be protecting her by leaving her there. "Okay, David, tell me you've got something, orders, a time, a place, what he signed out that could kill her."  
  
"Calm down, Mr. Tippin. I know Vaughn is smart for choosing a secluded place, but he's not going to kill her. He knows very well that he doesn't have the authority to do that," Dr. Miller cajoled him. "I'm going to send you a copy of the order by e-mail since that is the fastest way to do this. It'll give you the time, how to get there and what procedures have been authorized to him. Shock and making a shallow but deep enough incision to cause her pain is probably all he's been cleared to do."  
  
"O~Okay, how long do I have to get through to him?" Will asked then and felt his blood run cold when the doctor didn't give an answer.  
  
"It's~~~he picked her up early and it only takes an hour to get there if he knows how to. They've probably started by now," he lamented. Will's groan was audible enough to clear to the other end. "It's an interrogation session, Agent Tippin. Nobody is going to stop him, including you. I didn't call you to get you to prevent this, I just thought you'd like to know. All tortured patients or victims that suffer through a formal interrogation are given a window of three hours to see someone who will instill humanity back into them, if not they'll lose their mind and in bad cases, brain damage."  
  
"So you want me to go see her," Will finished for him, very bluntly.  
  
"Unless you have someone else in mind."  
  
"And what do I do if I see Vaughn?" Will demanded. "Shake his hand, congratulate him for doing a good job?" he sniveled, now laughing darkly. "I can't promise you I wont' sock him in the face."  
  
"Mr. Tippin, don't' interrupt him during the questioning but after that, kick him, beat him, do whatever you want with him."  
  
"I got your permission, huh doc?" Will replied with a chuckle.  
  
"Yes. And don't worry about a thing, Agent Tippin. After the three hours, Syd will probably be put in one of the rooms to recover and then I'll personally make sure she gets safely back into bed."  
  
"T~thank you Dr. Miller," Will thanked, feeling a bit of the weight lifted off his shoulder. "Thanks for everything."  
  
"Of course. I'll manipulate the system and stall Vaughn's interaction with her, though I can't make any promises. Just get down on the ground as soon as you can. I'll fax a note to your main office and request your presence, and I will also keep looking for anything on Dr. Tobias Seacrest."  
  
Will nodded, gave another goodbye then waited for the static to subside, indicating the call was disconnected. "Marshall," he said a second later. "You still there, bud?"  
  
"Copy Scientist."  
  
"Got a question for you. Has Vaughn checked in at all today?"  
  
"Uh~~~no, I think he called in sick," Marshall replied with a hint of suspicion. "But you know that."  
  
"I know," Will put in hurridely. "I guess I'll talk to you when I'm back in L.A. This is Scientist going radio silent until completion of the mission." He then pulled off his earphones and slammed them on the floor.  
  
"Tipping, I tried not to notice but you're making enough racket," Helen quipped then continued in her unyielding tone. "Tell me what's going on?"  
  
"Later," he argued. He hadn't properly digested the intel himself.  
  
"No, now."  
  
Will gave a huff. Then he brought up his screen but pulled the ear phones off from the actual output. Helen followed his actions soundlessly, then settled into her chair trying to look as unemotional as she could possibly fathom.  
  
"That was my informant from the naval hospital. Where Syd's being held. He's been there. Keeping tabs, making sure that she's treated with a decent amount of respect."  
  
"O~Oh I see," Helen griped, feeling uncomfortable the way she did whenever she talked to Will about another girl he'd liked. "How is she?"  
  
"I don't know. He just informed me that Sydney was put to sleep then taken to a torture chamber for a formal interrogation."  
  
Heldn clapped her hands to her mouth. "Oh god, Will, I don't know what to say. You must be a wreck."  
  
"I'm worse that that, especially since the doctor told me there is absolutely nothing I do can about it. He wants me to go see her after it's over and make sure Sydney remains human enough to keep Vaughn from being written up!"  
  
"Wait~~~our director Vaughn? I thought he called in sick."  
  
"Only because he knows I would have stopped him had I found out," Will cursed, his eyes narrowed. "I just heard from Marshall, Vaughn hasn't checked in to see what's going on with our task at hand, and now it makes sense. He's too busy being inhuman and making time to torture his ex- girlfriend."  
  
"So, who's running our show then?"  
  
Will rolled his eyes. That was the farthest thought from his mind. "Dixon, probably." Helen was stung by his crudeness but that was nothing to how she felt when she was a tear escaped his eye.  
  
"Hey," she crooned, taking a seat in his lap. "We'll figure it out, I know you want to prevent this session but we can't focus on what's already happened. And hey, Syd is strong, she'll last through one session fine. She somehow found her way back to us after five years, right?"  
  
Will forced every ounce of his body to believe her words, even though that had been the last thing he'd wanted to hear.  
  
"The next sixteen hours are going to be terrible, and I'll probably lash out at you a few time~~~but~~~I'm glad I'm going through them with you," Will admitted, leaning into her shoulders, wrapping his rough fingers around Helen's.  
  
"Me too," she murmured as she kissed him on the forehead before she buried her head onto her hair. "Me too."  
  
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So sorry I haven't updated in forever! Thanks for reading, you all keep me going! Please don't' forget to review. You're not going to believe what is going to happen next, oh wait~~~ you might, but it'll probably be more radical than you expect!!! More Vaughn and Sydney to go!!!!!  
  
Ten reviews means I update!!!!! Talk to ya lataz, Kris 


	6. Part V part II: Flash back 2

Total Vaughn Lover When She was Bad  
  
"This is not a nightmare~~~this is life"(Part II)  
  
Author's note: Hey! 2 Reviews! Well it's better than nothing! Thanks to Jennie and Ms. Vaughn for being so loyal, this is for you two!!!  
  
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Ten hours earlier.  
  
"Sydney~~~Sydney, sweetie, you don't want to do this!" Vaughn cautioned his ex who was standing with a gun to his wife's head. "Come on, drop the gun and come home with us now while we still can pull some strings and get you out of this mess. Go back to where things are normal."  
  
"Oh God! Another dream!" Sydney wanted to scream as she realized she'd entered her own body and looked through the eyes of the Sydney who was balancing the barrel of a hand gun to an innocent woman's temple.  
  
"Vaughn~~~I hate you and so let's make you understand that no amount of sweet talking is going to convince me to believe you care about anything more than your precious wife," she found herself scowling. "And while we're at it, hurting you beyond repair is probably ideal. And Vaughn without his precious Viola, it's so pathetic, I could cry."  
  
"Syd~~~You're better than this! The Sydney I love wouldn't kill my wife in cold blood," Vaughn reasoned and it was evident with just one look in his eyes that he still cared deeply about Sydney Bristow.  
  
"How many times do I have to tell you the Sydney you loved no longer exists, in fact, I'm sure that it was all an act," she laughed, her voice dripping with disdain.  
  
"Syd, come on. Drop this! If this was an attention-getter, you go it," Will barked suddenly, averting her eyes to her best friend who was slowly laying his gun on the floor to show he wasn't about to shoot her. His fear of seeing a civilian murdered made his voice shrill. "We'll listen to what you have to say," he cajoled her, slowly inching towards her. "Just put the gun down."  
  
"No! Don't' tell me what to do!" she saw herself screaming, pointing her gun in surprised Will's direction. "I told you the Sydney that you knew was the weak Sydney and I killed her. She no longer exists. And you can't bargain with me, so~~~don't." This comment silenced the protesting and she found herself walking back over to Viola Vaughn. "I'm sure you thought marrying Vaughn will be forever, that he'll make you happy," she drawled as she traced the barrel along her face line. "But the truth is, no man is capable of loving anybody for eternity."  
  
"M~Ms, Bristow," Viola pleaded, her purple eyes flashed with fear, which was accurate considering that her husband's ex-girlfriend now turned uncontrollable menance had a gun cocked to her mouth. "W~what are you going to do to me?"  
  
"Shut up and~~~maybe I won't tell you," she offered, giving her a pretty smile that alluded her present dangerous state.  
  
Sydney gaped at the scene happening before her, in disbelief. Her heart was ramming against her ribs at such a fast pace that she was sure she was going to have a heart attack.  
  
What was this monster standing in her place? It looked exactly like her, sounded like her, but her venom was definitely not her.  
  
"Sydney, you stop this act right now, or I will shoot you," Vaughn thundered, finally regaining some of his strength. He'd pulled his gun out and had cocked the trigger almost immediately.  
  
"Oh you would, would you?" Sydney snickered, not at all intimidated by the automatic her ex-boyfriend and former handler was pointing in her direction. "Didn't you just get done calling me, "sweetie?"  
  
"Sydney, I don't understand!" he cried in exasperation. "I gave you the same chance, I asked you to marry me. You said, "no." You broke my heart, you pushed me out of your life and forced me to find comfort elsewhere. I should be the one trying to get revenge on you, not the other way around!"  
  
"Mike, don't' push it!" she heard Weiss caution his best friend, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady Vaughn who could barely stand sill, filled with fear for his wife, hurt and anger toward Sydney.  
  
"She's trying to shoot my wife!" Michael rasped, his voice cracking on the word, "wife." "I'm not going to stand here and do nothing!"  
  
"Well it's either that or watching Sydney act. I know it's hard but you can't provoke her. At this point, you don't know what she will do."  
  
Sydney found herself watching the two of them bicker and an evil and amused smile slid onto her face. This Sydney was actually enjoying this. How sick could she be?  
  
"Sydney Bristow," Viola said suddenly which got her exactly what she wanted, the attention of her would-be assasin. "You can have Vaughn if that's what you desire," she added tentatively. "I've heard your story from Michael, how hopelessly in love you were with my husband," she offered suddenly. "I understand you still love him and I'd rather let him go than have you hurt him."  
  
Vaughn's head flicked up and he stared disbelieving as his innocent and loving wife removed her wedding band from her finger and tossed it his way.  
  
"N~No~~~Viola," he cried quietly, his heart breaking, his face breaking with sweat and tears as he reached out for the ring that Evil Sydney stamped her black heel down on, narrowly missing his fingers. Then she turned expectantly to Vaughn who's face said, "I hate you! I will never forgive you for this!"  
  
And then Sydney made an even more sickening movement. "Vaughn, hand me your ring," she teased him, holding out her hand. "You know you've wanted to and now you can finally be rid of her."  
  
"N~No!"  
  
Big Mistake. Evil Sydney snapped her fingers and bursting through the door to the warehouse came a ruggedly handsome man who filled her with a sense of deja vu but she couldn't put a name to him at the moment. The surreality of the scene happening before her had occupied all her attention.  
  
She watched in horror as she was dragged with her body as evil Sydney saddled up to the young man and gave him a very wet kiss, which tasted of cigarette smoke and rotting teeth, nothing like with Vaughn who had a sweet aroma and sometimes spearmint gum. This was much to the chagrin of Vaughn, Weiss and Will, two of the guys had had an enormous crush on her and the other guy had been the one trying to help them out.  
  
Sydney then found herself whispering something into her partner's ear and man walked promptly over to Viola Vaughn. He whipped out a knife from where, she didn't know and used it to rip off her shirt, and even managed to knick the skin that lied beneath. Viola shrieked in agony and evil Sydney smiled as she looked on, as though she really felt nothing.  
  
Vaughn watched horrified as blood seeped to the surface and against her milky pale skin, she already looked dead.  
  
Will lowered his gun, overwhelmed by shock and Weiss had to turn away before he fainted, or worse.  
  
"You bitch!" Vaughn roared, getting to his feet, his arms tense, ready to knock the daylights out Sydney. "What kind of sickness do you have!"  
  
"If you're coming any closer, you better be handing me that right," she taunted, her voice sickly high. "If not you don't know what I'll do to you, or your wife."  
  
"You're not going to do anything to me, Syd," he smirked, looking cocky, or at least trying to be, "and you won't lay another finger on my wife."  
  
Sydney stopped and smiled, her eyes glittering with mischief and Sydney felt her heart fall to her stomach. "Mr. Vaughn, are you sure you want to challenge me?" her evil half giggled, putting her hands on her perfect hips.  
  
"No! Michael!!" Viola screamed. The rough-mannered guy had ripped off everything down to just her undergarments. And Sydney's partner in crime had become butt-naked and began advancing toward Michael's screaming wife.  
  
"Sydney~~~~get that~~~f***ing bastard away from my wife," he commanded evil Syd, pausing between each word as though she couldn't' comprehend him any other away.  
  
"The ring, Vaughn honey and I might save your little wifey," Evil Sydney said with an even more evil grin.  
  
Vaughn's eyes darted to his wife who was forced to endure the handsome but dangerous man's seduction and his eyes filled with pain at seeing the same pain reflected in her lavender irises. He couldn't believe what he was doing as he pulled the golden band off his finger and it was only at his wife's beckoning that he did so.  
  
But instead of putting into Sydney's extended palm, he pulled his hand back then swung it at her face, planning to poke her eye out or at least make her temporarily blind.  
  
Sydney doubled back. It struck her so hard that a red streak appeared where the metal had made contact with her skin, like how a cross burns a vampire.  
  
"You son of a~~~" evil Sydney cursed then walked over to Viol and pushed her partner away from the shivering helpless body of Vaughn's wife. "Your husband just made a ~~~very~~~very~~~big mistake."  
  
Viola's mauve-painted lips parted in a gasp when Sydney pulled her head back by giving her beautiful dry hair a strong yank.  
  
"What are you going to do to me?" she whimpered. "I thought you said you were going to let me go. Vaughn threw his ring off, I~~~I couldn't believe he did it."  
  
"Me neither, to be quite honest with you," she smirked, giving her a confused glance. "I really thought he loved you."  
  
"M~Me t~too," Vaughn's wife groaned, tears continually wetting her cheeks followed by coughed-out sobs. "So you don't have to do this anymore. You can have Mr. Vaughn. And I'm sure he can turn this all around with the knowledge he has. You heard him yourself."  
  
Sydney shot Vaughn a bemused look when he saw he was filled with fright for his wife's life. "Well, wel~~~let your wifey in on your little CIA secret, did you?"  
  
"Kind of had to when you kidnapped her and we had to bust in, suited up with badges," he complained, gruffly, still managing to look very picturesque and concerned for Sydney's well being.  
  
"You know," she said after a beat and Vaughn and Syd knew she was going to not like what she was going to say. "I should kill her, I'd be doing the Agency a big favor."  
  
"Hey wait a minute! I saved Will's life when he got kidnapped. Don't' you think you owe me?" Vaughn scolded her, reaching for his stun gun that was sitting in his pocket.  
  
"No, and if you don't' stop talking, I'll snap her neck in front of all of you!" she warned them, yanking even harder on Viola's head.  
  
Will and Weiss pulled Vaughn back and Will tried to comfort Vaughn as Weiss told hold of Vaughn's stun gun.  
  
Sydney had her back to him and was laughing like a manic would make in a movie immediately before he/she killed the heroine.  
  
"I think Vaughn is losing his mind, don't you? I mean if not, why would he actually trust the words of a woman who kidnapped his wife in the first place?"  
  
"Y~you're not going to let me go are you?" Viola groaned, her gaze hard as she felt her life force continue to drain out of her body. "You were never going to."  
  
"Now you have a lot more sense than your husband," Sydney beamed, fixing her eyes on her lavender irises, "Truth is, I don't' want Vaughn, why do you think I turned him down the first time? All I want is for him to suffer. "Sydney paused then changed her expression to that of remorse. "I'm really sorry you had to be in the middle of this, this really is nothing again you."  
  
Then Sydney watched as her other half pulled Viola's head back so sharply and with so much force that her neck broke with a large nasty snap.  
  
Sydney gulped down the bile that she felt rush to her throat.  
  
Vaughn didn't.  
  
"S~Sydney, how could you do that? How could you do that to M~Michael!" Will screamed, the most angry she had ever seen him. "Do you realize you just killed an innocent woman!"  
  
Sydney's evil façade grew a few chinks and her face actually became horrified as Viola's lifeless body slid to the floor and laid for eternal rest in its' own pool of blood.  
  
"I~~~I," she was stammering when the next second she gave Vaughn's wife a swift kick which her partner watched with glee.  
  
Sydney then ran up to give her "sweetie," a big kiss with lots of tongue, enjoying each other as though it was normal to embrace over a dead body and three guys ready to heave their guts.  
  
"I~~~love~~~you," she heard the evil man say to her and her evil half replied with a heart-felt, "I love you," herself against his rough mouth, breaking away from him, but at the same time still clinging to his body.  
  
Until she watched as Weiss pulled the trigger on the stun gun and shot unsuspecting Sydney in the leg.  
  
"Argh!" she watched herself scream as her body stumbled and fell face first into Viola's unmoving body. She expected to see her so-called partner help her out of the muck but he didn't. It was Vaughn, Weiss and Will who jumped on, dragged her away from Viola's body, then it was Vaughn who gave her a heavy blow to the head after kneeling down next to Viola's body and told her that he loved her.  
  
Sydney was so shocked at this behavior though she strongly felt that she didn't deserve anything less. Seeing Vaughn make physical contact that was other than intimate was something her mind wouldn't comprehend.  
  
"You want to kick something," Vaughn spit through gritted teeth as he gave her a swift kick on the back with his nice tough combat boots. "Kick me, damn it! Kick me!" He then jerked her head up and gave her a hard punch in the jaw. Then he moved away to pull on his headphone to answer an incoming call. Sydney as thankful. Hadn't it been for that, Michael might have beat her to death.  
  
"This is "boy scout," she heard him replied, now completely retained his composure.  
  
Sydney heard bits and pieces of the conversation but couldn't piece anything together. She was still trying to convince herself that this couldn't' be real, that this was a nightmare when shots rang out.  
  
Will fell to his knees, clutching his leg as he cursed. The next one got Michael in the abdomen and he stared with eyes wide in disbelief that as evil as Sydney was, he hadn't thought for a second she would actually shoot him.  
  
Then her eyes moved to where Weiss was laying, the stun gun still in his hand, ready to shoot her again.  
  
"Oh no~~~You don't," her other half growled in what sounded like an otherworldly voice. She aimed at Weiss' hand when Vaughn shouted "Weiss!"  
  
Unbeknowest to Vaughn's protests, Weiss raised himself up off the floor, trying to scramble away. That was when she heard another bang.  
  
Sydney watched in horror as the next scene revealed Weiss clutching his bleeding chest. Even evil Sydney looked stunned as the gun fell from her hands. Everything else was a blur. Syd being urged on to make a get away, Vaughn and Will trying to help their brave and fallen comrade.  
  
"Find her!" she heard Vaughn order in his sternest tone as he cradled his best friend body. "I'll get Weiss medical attention and call for back up, you~~~find her!"  
  
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And there you have the nightmare! Now you know what it means by when she went bad! Oh no! this was almost AU I know Syd would have never shot Vaughn but it's fanfiction and I wanted to go with a totally bad concept!!! (no pun intended!)  
  
Please review and tell me what you think! Thanks, I look forward to hearing what you've got to say! Oh and please leave me your e-mail if you'd like to be notified when this is updated!!!  
  
Total Vaughn Lover 


	7. Part VI: This is not a nightmare, this i...

Total Vaughn Lover When She was Bad  
  
"This is not a nightmare~~~this is life"(Part III)  
  
Author's note: Hey! Thanks for so many reviews! You guys all rock! Thanks for reading! 5 reviews and I update soon, if not it'll be in a month! You decided! Please continue to review, leave me an e-mail addy if you want to be notified of updates!!!!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She felt herself running, running as fast as she could, away from the hideous array of murdering that she'd just witnessed, but her legs felt like lead which slowed her down and in a matter of seconds, she was no longer chased by the stench of decay. She was surrounded by it, swallowed in whole. It was salty and sour at the same time and bombarded all of her senses. She was tearing by the time she reached what looked like a huge metal door.  
  
She yanked it open with all the strength she had left and when she stepped through it all she remembered seeing was an expanse of blinding white light.  
  
The she found her eyes open wider than usual, and the bright whiteness around her impaired her vision for a second. She squinted and slowly allowed her eyes to adjust to her surroundings. She felt a wet sensation gently rub the heat from her face.  
  
She sighed with relief. "Nurse~~~"  
  
"Hello Ms. Bristow," said a voice that she didn't recognize. It was a female but it sounded very muffled.  
  
The nurse didn't say anything else, in fact Sydney was sure she'd just left the room. She decided to stretch out her legs, they needed some exercise after being cooped up in a bed. For one they could become flabby, and two she knew that she could develop a blood clot in her legs if she wasn't active.  
  
Only when she tried to move them, she found she couldn't.  
  
Sydney's first instinct was to panic. But somehow she curbed it, chocking it up to temporary paralysis, a result she assumed of the overwhelming stress she'd been going through.  
  
But when she couldn't move her hands, she freaked out. And when she saw herself surrounded by unfamiliar surroundings, her heart started ramming against her ribs in panic. She wasn't in the comfort of her hospital bed at the Naval Facility. This room was small and all walls, the ceiling and the floor was white.  
  
It only had room for one table, which she was obviously laying on. She realized that heavy duty straps had been put in place over each of her wrists, her abdomen and both her ankles.  
  
Oh god! Was she being kidnapped again? She was really starting to get tired of waking up in a different place from where she'd remembered falling to sleep.  
  
She laid back and took a deep breath, her mind racking with escaping possibilities while at the same time anticipating what was going to happen next. There was nothing more she could do, and if she didn't cooperate, she might not get out of here. The CIA was treating her like a criminal, that was an undeniable fact but she'd rather be in their company than in some terrorist group that had destroyed her life and forced her husband against her.  
  
While she waited, her eyes swerved around the room, looking for any evidence she was being monitored. She couldn't help it, the dream got to her. It felt so real, she'd watched herself snap the neck of a human being as though it were an insignificant stick. But she decided to be mum about it. IT would be pointless to say if it weren't true and could open a door she might want to close but wouldn't be able to do so later.  
  
She tried to calm herself down, tried to think with an operating mind but she found it very difficult in the mind boggling room There were few things that bothered Sydney but she liked knowing where she was.  
  
That wasn't so much to ask, was it?  
  
The only thing keeping Sydney from breaking her arms to get out of the straps was the determination that she would be able to get to a phone and tell the CIA her wherabouts.  
  
The door to her room opened and in stepped a handsome looking doctor, dressed in surgical scrubs followed by Michael Vaughn in his clean professional suit, walking in with a sense of purpose.  
  
Sydney felt a scream coming on but she fought it with all her might, not wanting to get sedated again, or worse.  
  
The doctor came towards her and she jerked her head away, not wanting to know what he had come in here to do to her.  
  
"Agent Sydney Bristow," Vaughn addressed her sharply. Sydney meekly turned his way, had she any more strength she would have put on a game face and make Vaughn regret ever doubting her.  
  
"I am Director Michael Vaughn and I have been temporarily transferred to the L.A task force," he spouted in an all-business tone then pulled out what looked like an order and thrust it in her face. "This is a order stating that I have been authorized to put you through a formal interrogation. What I need you to do is sign this form to confirm that you have heard what I've said to you.  
  
The doctor stepped forward and silently handed her a pen that Sydney hesitated before taking it into her tentative hands.  
  
"Just tell me you're not the one cutting my brain open," she smirked as she gracefully signed her name on the dotted line, feeling if she didn't, she would have a gun pointed at her head the next time around.  
  
"Oh cocky, that's a great way to start the day," Vaughn laughed, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He took the paper, verified the signature then handed it to the doc. "Why don't you go get that processed. The first part of this interrogation I want to have full control of first. I'll call you in when I need you later to do your part."  
  
"B~but s~sir, regulation states~~~"  
  
"SCREW REGULATION!" Vaughn cut in angrily and Sydney would have jumped if she wasn't bound to the table. "THIS woman murdered my wife right in front of me! Give me ten minutes alone with her. If the feds come after you, I'll take care of it."  
  
The doctor studied Vaughn and then gave in. He obviously didn't want to make him angry. "All right, but ten minutes. You know what torture methods you've been authorized for."  
  
Michael nodded his head and watched the door till the doctor left then snapped it shut and locked it. Then he turned and circled Sydney, like vulture aiming for the kill.  
  
"Well~~~well~~~well~~~I never thought I would have to do this to you," he began with a bitter smile as he pulled on a pair of disposable gloves. "Honestly, I really thought we would be married by now, maybe have a baby of our own. I never thought I'd have to bring you in here."  
  
Sydney could swear she heard genuine remorse in her ex-boyfriend's voice. She watched him pained, she had expected the same thing.  
  
"To explain the circumstances of why you are here is because, in my twisted, and currently cold-hearted way, I want to give you a chance to be truthful with me and let you give me a reason to let you regain my trust."  
  
"How thoughtful," she thought sarcastically, but she kept the comment to herself. She was lucky that he was even being human with her if what she'd seen in her dream had been true.  
  
"And how you got here is quite simple. I put in for sick leave, flew over to the Naval Facility, had you sedated by some very reluctant nurses then put you on a plane and carried you over to where you are now."  
  
All this matter of fact talking was getting on Sydney's last nerve and she had the daunting feelings that Michael knew that and was doing this on purpose.  
  
"A~And where exactly am I?"  
  
"It's the place where they tortured inmates who were part of the now defunct group, the Rapture. My first assignment as a field agent," Michael replied in that simple, tone of spouting facts.  
  
The Rapture did ring a bell but to Sydney it was no more than a name of a dangerous band of people, out to conquer the world.  
  
"This place is secluded and you probably wouldn't' know where we are even if I did give you the specifis," Michael continued as he messed with syringes, prodding objects and sharp scalpels. "I chose this place specifically for this reason."  
  
Sydney stared at Vaughn, studied the emotions present in his eyes, trying to find any proof at all whether he was joking or being serious she decided to wait for him to say~~~ "Will, that's it. I knew he would try to stop me if he found out~~~so I had to make sure he didn't."  
  
Sydney's blood ran cold and gave her skin a paler flag then it already did.  
  
"So, I'd like to begin," he stared with a smile as he took hold of her arm and scrubbed it with a cold disinfectant. "When I found you in Hong Kong, you said that the last thing you remember is Francie Calfo and killing her double."  
  
"Y~yes," Sydney said in the most stable tone she could muster, but she avoided his eyes. She wasn't ready to see the reaction in his emerald irises.  
  
"Sydney, I told you that you killed my wife, that you shot me, Weiss and Will," Vaughn went on without missing a beat. "Will you admit to those actions now~~~Or do I have to perform an arterial puncture on you?"  
  
Sydney glanced over at Vaughn who was getting ready a needle with a huge gauge and two other ones to, she sighed with relief, to numb her up. Still arterial punctures was her least favorite medical procedure.  
  
"D~Director V~Vaughn, I~I told you. I don't remember," she repeated, her face overwhelmed by panic.  
  
Vaughn let out a sigh, picked up one of the needles and injected it with so much force Sydney was sure he'd bust her artery. She let out a big grunt, fighting Vaughn's hand to keep her from moving. Only it didn't work. Vaughn was serious and he was flexing all this strength.  
  
"You know what the problem with that is?" Michael inquired, raising an eyebrow. "It's that I don't believe you."  
  
"But Michael, you know me, you know I couldn't have done this. Even if I wanted you so bad, I would never ever kill your wife," Sydney protested, then let out another yelp when he poked her again.  
  
"This is a business-related interrogation, Agent Bristow," Michael reminded her fiercly. "Going forward you will address me as Agent or Director Vaughn. You will also refrain from making any bursts. Failure to comply with these can result in some severe consequences, is this understood, Agent Bristow?"  
  
Sydney didn't reply. She was too confused, too hurt.  
  
"Agent Bristow, did you hear me?"  
  
"Y~yes."  
  
Michael nodded his approval then clicked onto a remote to bring up a console. "Agent Bristow, if you insist on denying the matter of murdering civilian Viola Vaughn and decapitating CIA officer Eric Weiss, we are going to have a problem."  
  
"I'm sure we will," Sydney agreed but what she didn't remember, she didn't remember.  
  
"I have received intel that you went to see Agent Weiss, that you practically threatened the life of a nurse if she didn't allow you into ICU, what do you have to say to that?"  
  
"W~wait a minute! What, are you having people spy on me?" Sydney demanded, angrily, her voice shaking from suppressing the sobs that she felt rocking her throat.  
  
"I have to," Michael argued, not looking particularly happy to address that fact. "I have to until I figure out if you really are clueless of if you're just acting. You've killed before Bristow, and that's no proof that you won't do it again."  
  
Michael brought up a video of feed Syd as she had been in Weiss' room. He paused it on a moment when she'd become agitated. "Seems that something here triggered your emotions, can you explain to me what you were feeling during that moment?"  
  
Sydney knew exactly what had happened but she wasn't too sure Michael was going to love what his ex-lover had to say. "You sure you want to hear this?"  
  
"If I didn't, I wouldn't have bothered asking," he retorted bluntly.  
  
"Okay," Sydney blew out a breath and closed her eyes. "I was actually ranting about why I lose you or actually how had I lost you without my knowing," she began quietly.  
  
Vaughn was shaken by that comment, that was evident. 'So you trying to tell me you were asking your former friend for love advice?""  
  
Sydney nodded.  
  
"LIAR! You knew what you'd done the moment you laid eyes on him and you were so disgusted by your action, that's what happened here Agent Bristow," Michael corrected for her then picked up his pen to jot down information only he knew of.  
  
"No! I may not know a lot of thing but I know that is not what happened! And don't' bother writing it down. I sure as hell am not going to confirm it!"  
  
"You will if you don't want me to make you!"  
  
Sydney was about to ask what he would do. The next second she got her answer, Vaughn injected her with a temporarily paralyzing sedative. She felt as though she'd been slammed on the table and magnetically forced not to move.  
  
He then hit a button. A beautiful picture of a vibrant brunettte with violet eyes appeared on the console.  
  
"Do you recognize this woman?"  
  
Sydney shook her head, but looked as though she'd gotten a headache from seeing the slide.  
  
"You should," Vaughn accused her. "You killed her." He took a breather then added. "This is Viola Sanchez Vaughn, my dead beloved wife."  
  
Sydney caught a tear on Vaughn's lashes and couldn't help but feel jealousy at witnessing his obvious feelings for another woman. Though, it shouldn't have surprised her, Vaughn, wasn't the type of guy to marry someone other than for love. But it was something she couldn't accept.  
  
"I~~~no~~~this is not true. I~~~I don't' believe it!" she cried.  
  
"Not convincing enough for you," Vaughn quipped, staring at her lazily. 'Maybe you couldn't recognize her in all her youth and vibrant beauty. Perhaps you'll be able to decipher from this next photo."  
  
Vaughn clicked the switch and a new image flickered on this wall. Sydney coughed when she recognized the picture. It was a scene from her nightmare. The same cut up body, the same hair, pale skin and violet lips. Vaughn stood over her, with one hand clutched over Sydney's-inflicted bullet wound and with his other hand it appeared he was covering her eyes.  
  
She examined Vaughn who was also staring at image. She'd never see him so distraught. He looked just like the grieving man for a moment, with his green eyes bloodshot, rimmed with tears, his jaw clenched and his forehead creased. It was also evident that his shirt was tight because of how strained his breathing was. The next second his depression was replaced by pure loathing, and anger that made her think before she said anything else.  
  
"There, does that ring a bell or are you still going to act like you would never hurt me and that you could never do this?"  
  
Sydney didn't reply. Vaughn turned away from the picture to Sydney and was filled with uncontrollable heat. She closed her eyes tightly.  
  
"Oh no you don't Sydney!" Vaughn growled and grabbed her by the pajama top she had on, jerking her awake. She found herself slammed against the wall, but she was struck incoherent that she barely felt the blow, which seemed to irritated Vaughn so much that he slammed her again. Sydney let out a low, "Ow."  
  
"Shut up, that's nothing compared to what she felt when you snapped her neck and had your partner practically raped her," Vaughn roared, so angry that his body was convulsively shaking, pointing a trembling finger at the grotesque picture. "Stop denying what you did Sydney, unless you want me to snap your neck as well."  
  
Sydney felt Michael's hand move to her neck and tighten. She glanced at his arms and could see that he'd flexed his muscles. If he wanted to, he really could have.  
  
"V~Vaughn."  
  
Michael tightened his grip a little more then finally relaxed his arms, to Sydney's surprise and relief. She stared up at him with frightened eyes. "Only I'm not going to one, I could never kill you, no matter how much I detest your guts. I know Viola is watching over me and she would never forgive me if she found out her death has made me a monster."  
  
Sydney nodded, taking in everything he was saying. Okay, so she didn't have to worry about losing her life. What a relief. She visibly relaxed and she let out a slow breath.  
  
"But that doesn't mean I can't put you through an equal amount of agony," he reminded her, picking up a scalpel from the tray. "There's some things that are worse than death."  
  
Sydney gulped. She didn't doubt that at all she'd gone through unimaginable procedures of torture, some she'd never known existed until she'd joined the CIA and gotten messed up into the business of becoming a double agent for the CIA and SD-6.  
  
"Agent Bristow when we returned from our personal venture and went on our mission to Indonesia, you claimed to be ill and I sent you to a hospital suite, but when I came to see how you were doing~~~you were not there. You just vanished. You finally returned a week later claming you just had to do some shopping which none of us bought." He paused to let that sink in. "Sydney, the first day I met you, I told you I had an instinct about you. That day was the only day I doubted it. So I'm going to ask you this. What were you really doing that week when you disappeared?"  
  
"I~I don't know, I~I don't remember going to Indonesia or going to Santa Barbara," she reminded him, her facial features growing tight from irritation. "I already told you that."  
  
"Yeah. And I already told you you're lying but you haven't succumbed to that either," Vaughn shot back. "But that's fine, I will get out of you."  
  
Sydney was about to ask how but the evil glint in his eye and mischievous smile on his snide expression rendered her speechless. That expression looked all too familiar and her heart filled with dread when she knew why. She'd had the same "mad," expression right before he'd shot her friend and killed the innocent civilian her ex-boyfriend had replaced her with.  
  
"Oh don't bother asking why," he crooned as he grabbed a painting brush and dabbed. The brown liquid against her abdomen that Vaughn had exposed by pulling up her top. She felt a very cold sensation, and the strong smell of disinfectant attacked her nostrils reminding her strongly or the surgical ward.  
  
"Now how would you feel if I was to reopen this scar you've got here? That'll probably leave a huge scar on your nicely-toned tummy? Which means no bikini tops for you, unless your next boyfriend will enjoy seeing an ugly gash where your stomach used to be."  
  
Sydney gasped when she saw Michael place one gloved hand against her tummy and laid the scalpel's blade against her skin.  
  
"You have something you want to say before I make the first cut, perhaps to change my mind?" Vaughn repeated, staring at Sydney with one of those angst-filled stares. His hand was shaking as though he were just waiting for her to give him a reason not to cut her open and hurt her.  
  
Sydney felt terrible but she wasn't going to lie to him.  
  
"No."  
  
Vaughn let out a heavy sigh, disappointment flooded his expression. "Sydney, I don't' know why you're doing this, I'm giving you a chance to come clean. Don't you know I'll be able to find out what's in your mind by having you undergo celebretolosis?"  
  
"Director Vaughn, I know you want me to say yes, I do remember~~~but then I'd be lying to you. I can't remember Agent Vaughn, no matter how much you threaten me what I don't know I don't know."  
  
"If that's how you really want to do this," Vaughn applied pressure to the knife and let it sink in a little before he slowly pulled it back.  
  
Sydney kept her face as emotionless as possible. She knew Vaughn was just waiting for her to crack. And she would have, if only her determination to not give him that satisfaction wasn't so strong. But she felt it, every nerve ending the knife sliced sent an instantaneous message to her brain that she should be feelings pain, and she could barely keep from crying out.  
  
"Hmm~~~I knew your pain threshold was strong but I must say, I thought you'd be crying by now. I'm impressed," Vaughn laughed as he began another incision, this time from one side of her belly to the other. "Not painful enough for ya? Well I've got one more piece I want you listen to, and this time if you deny it, I'll get the surgeon in here and have him perform a hysterectomy on you, and you can be awake for the full length of it."  
  
Sydney continued to stare at the ceiling. She didn't want to see what he would do next. Not having to see what was being done to her certainly made convincing herself she wasn't in pain a lot easier and effective. Though she was kidding herself if she thought that would help her become a human anesthetic.  
  
She heard Vaughn click a button. She heard static for a few moment, but when that died away, she recognized the next voice as the strangled and desperate cry of her three favorite guys.  
  
"S~syd," she heard Vaughn cry. "Baby, you don't want to do this, you know you don't!"  
  
"Oh~~~actually, I think I do," she heard her own voice taunt. "Sorry Mike, I hate you and no amount of sweet talking is going to change my mind."  
  
Sydney coughed hard as she gulped down the guilt she felt rise in her throat. She was ready to sprain her wrists or worse, but she didn't, knowing that if they were broken, she wouldn't be able to mobilize them over her ears.  
  
"Syd, stop this. If you want attention, you've gotten it, so you don't' have to do this!" scolded a voice she recognized immediately as her best friend Will's. "Come on Syd, don't do it. The Syd I know won't~~~"  
  
"Look, the Syd you knew was evil and weak and I hated her. So I had her killed myself. Your best friend doesn't exist and the former love of your life is dead!" her voice cackled.  
  
Sydney felt those words stab her, as though they'd seared through her flesh and punctured her heart. She saw Vaughn had taken a seat and had silently began sobbing, frustrated perhaps with himself for not being able to prevent what had happened.  
  
That was enough to send her over the top.  
  
"No!" she screamed in agony. "No! I can't listen to this! Please Vaughn let me go, let me go!"  
  
Vaughn's head popped up and his face was spread with concern at Sydney's sudden outburst. This was the moment he'd been waiting for. He reached over to press the stop button on the tape recorder and then settled back onto his chair.  
  
"Sydney, is there something you'd like to me?" he asked quietly, turning his recorder on and placed it on the table.  
  
Sydney thought about it for a moment. Either way he was going to find out. It seemed so pointless in hiding it. And maybe if she told him even that little bit, he'll bless her with a numbing cream and biodegradable sutures. And~~~maybe he would tell her if her other dream, of the baby was also some kind of flashback.  
  
"Agent Bristow, do I have to turn on the recorder again?"  
  
"No!" she blurted out instantly, not too keen on hearing anymore of her evil talking or of the struggle that would follow sooner or later. "Please, no."  
  
Vaughn obliged and remained sitting. He laid the clipboard onto his lap then reached forward on his elbows and supported his face with the heels of his palms. "Okay, I wont' Syd. But only if you'll explain to me why hearing that caused you that outburst."  
  
Sydney nodded. "Okay, but~~~you've got to do two things for me first."  
  
"I'll keep negotiating any awards till after you've given me your statement," Vaughn put in firmly. "Reject that and you know what will happen to you."  
  
Sydney tried not to grip. Things weren't going the way she wanted them to and that always had a tendency of frustrating her. she saw Michael raise a glinting silver probing instrument and gulped.  
  
"Okay, I will, just, loosen these straps for me first. I feel like I'm paralyzed."  
  
"Well~~~that was the idea."  
  
Sydney couldn't believe it. Wasn't she Michael's former lover, the one he would protect for life? Could that really all have disappeared? Michael wasn't giving her an inch.  
  
There was an awkward pause.  
  
"Sydney~~~You were going to say."  
  
Vaughn's eyes were fixed on her expectantly and that actually still made her heart race. She really hoped what she said would please him and if not anything else, remind him what a loving young woman she'd once been, her only priority to please her loved ones.  
  
"I~~~I don't' know how long ago it was but I had a dream, a dream where I watched myself tell you you were nothing. Will was there, and so was Weiss. And then there was~~~Viola Vaughn, I believe th~that was y~your wife."  
  
Vaughn clenched his fists, trying to keep his rage in check. And at the same time he looked toward Sydney who really did look uncomfortable about discussing his wife, even mentioning his wife's name.  
  
"What else did you see? Did you see yourself shooting at us, killing my wife?' he said quietly, straining not to break into tears as he made eye contact with Sydney.  
  
Sydney bit her lip and nodded her head.  
  
"So you admit to it, then."  
  
To this Sydney reacted quite hysterically. "No! I don't, I don't' remember anything. I saw it in my dream, Vaughn, when I was sleeping!"  
  
"But you reacted to the tap and of course you did but that isn't because you freaked out from déjà vu, you are in disbelief. You were pondering what that dream meant, the moment you heard the recording it made sense, you got a liable explanation and you just don't' want to believe it," he corrected her, talking in fluent psychobabble that she hated so much.  
  
"No! You're wrong Vaughn!" she shouted back to him. Then she tried to pull herself out of the straps. She then let out an angry cry. She didn't understand why the hell she had to be treated like a criminal? And she couldn't understand why she couldn't get out of the situation. Where was the Sydney who'd risked her lives without hesitation, the one who'd made it back every time the CIA didn't' think she would?  
  
That was until the latest development in her life. The one where Vaughn was trying to convince her. she'd basically lost her mind five years ago. Well for her, she had to have lost her mind if she'd ever said she'd fallen out of love with Michael Vaughn.  
  
It sure seemed like it, Sydney Bristow had became nothing more than mortal husk that her ex-boyfriend could do nothing but shred apart. Sure his words hurt but gradually it all became an annoying numb sensation. That's right, she felt totally numb, her words wouldn't be listened to, her body wouldn't obey her wishes, and her mind kept secrets from her. This was an all-time low for her.  
  
Vaughn watched her wither on that table and with difficulty. It was so hard for him to watch Sydney in such a confused, helpless, give up state. Where was the extremely skilled and headstrong. Sydney who'd thought she was smarter than her handler from day one, the one who made him feel anger, fear, all his human emotions in a way he'd never felt before?  
  
Oh god, if he could just find the answer to that things could get a little easier for him and Sydney.  
  
Michae pulled off his gloves and shoved them into a trashcan then he pulled on another pair and scooted closer to Sydney. He gently moved her gown away from her belly and felt the gash and the skin surrounding it. He could feel her eyes on him as he fiddle with a hypodermic and wished he didn't have to be this way. He turned back towards her with the needle and cotton pad on hand.  
  
"This is a bit of lidocaine, thought you might want to be numbed while I stitch you up."  
  
Sydney shifted as Vaughn slowly pushed the medicine into the affected area. She felt the pain deadening a few seconds later and wept. This was her first moment of relief and she was sure she'd never been more thankful for lidocaine in her life.  
  
She felt pressure on her belly and assumed Vaughn had begun to clean her up.  
  
"S~Sydney~~~" he began in the gentlest tone as he'd done why they'd been the happiest couple in the CIA. "I know you're going to think this is a cop out and that I'm an inhuman bastard but Syd, I'm only doing my job. You don't remember it now but in my eyes Sydney, you're a criminal, a monster that is on the path to becoming an Irena Derevko and so of course I wanted to put you in a cell."  
  
Sydney didn't say anything but Vaughn could tell from her expression that she was listening. He carefully threaded a needle and began stitching up the long incision he'd made, dabbing gauze at the seeping blood as necessary.  
  
"Syd, I'll admit, I know I'm going too far and expecting to much if I say and believe that you do in fact remember everything," Vaughn lamented concentrating on his task at hand. "But I don't' think you're telling me everything you do know. For instance, the dream. Yeah, it is a dream and since you claim to not know of that event there is no way you can be 100% certain that did happen~~~but that doesn't mean you can be 100% sure that it didn't' happen either. I mean Syd, you're a smart woman, I know you put those puzzle pieces together, when that recording coincided with your nightmare and of course that was only because you were convinced already that this could be a flashback."  
  
"Agent Vaughn, I already told you~~~"  
  
"I just want you to tell me the truth Sydney, that's all and then I might believe there really is that Sydney. I know still in there, somewhere," he pleaded as he laid a bandage on top of it then began rolling gauze around her body. "Please Syd, you killed my wife, the truth, it the least you can do for me."  
  
Sydney gave the strap around her leg one more good yank and it broke like wet tissue paper. She then kicked of her other one and somehow found the strength to kick Vaughn against the wall as she bit through the straps just enough so she could pull her hands free. She stood up and towered over Vaughn who actually cowered under her.  
  
"So you think my dreams are flashbacks? Well then maybe I should tell you about the other one that's been preying on my mind!" she snarled and pulled Vaughn to his feet then slammed him against the table she'd been on and blew her cool breath in his face. "I had a dream Vaughn, that I delivered a baby girl, a girl you couldn't witness the birth of except through a glass wall. A girl you told me you were the father of."  
  
Vaughn saw Sydney staring into his eyes trying to depict the emotion present in them and jerked away. He wasn't about to give her that satisfaction.  
  
I need you to tell me Michael, do I have a daughter named Michedney? Did we have a baby together?"  
  
Vaughn didn't answer. Instead he pushed a red button that he had in his pant pocket, a small device all agents were given whenever they went to do a formal interrogation just in case the inmate became a threat as Sydney had.  
  
"Agent Vaughn, ANSWER ME!" she screamed and then socked him so hard on the face that he was forced to turn his head. His lip broke and he pulled a napkin from the supply under the table and dabbed it to his mouth.  
  
Then he let out a low chuckle that reminded her of a rumbling bout of thunder.  
  
"Vaughn, what the hell is so funny?" she shrieked, as he calmly turned his head back so he was level with her.  
  
"Just the fact that you've made the biggest mistake of hurting me," he snickered.  
  
A split second passed and the door to the torture chamber bust open and five strong men with stun guns charge into the room. Sydney looked at them with real fear in her eyes and she had good reason to be. They'd come in for her! She put her back against Vaughn and kicked the first two guards in front of her but it was no use. They were too much for Sydney to fight alone.  
  
The next moment Sydney was yanked off of Vaughn by her two arms and shot with a tranquilizer dart that knocked her out just long enough for Vaughn to be extracted from the room. Meanwhile a screaming Sydney was backhanded, whipped and then restrapped to the hard metal table only to await the doctor that she'd initially met, now ready to do his job.  
  
Sydney didn't see what was being done to her but the sensation of touch told her everything she needed to know. She was in pain, physical pain, emotion pain and other forms of pain she didn't know even existed.  
  
Agent Vaughn heard her for a few moments as he sat outside against the wall and cringed. As wrong as Sydney had been to turn the situation around and make him the victim, he thought brandishing whips on her body was uncalled for. Call him chicken but he couldn't bear to listen to anymore of her crying. He closed the heavy door, got to his feet then pushed any feelings or thoughts that had arisen about Sydney to the back to this mind, then went off, only thinking of how he'd nurse his bleeding lip.  
  
Hey! Thanks for reading and for supporting my fics! You are the ones who keep me going. Like I said 5 reviews and I'll update as soon as I can, if not, see you in a month! Tee hee! If you'd like to be notified of when this is updated, remember to leave your addy!!  
  
Total Vaughn Lover 


	8. Part VII: This is not a nightmare, this ...

So, Finally, I am getting around to update this one! So sorry that it took so long but I am finally back on track and I am looking forward to working on this one as well.

Thanks for all your awesome reviews!

And I give you

This is not a nightmare...this is life (PartV)

Will Tippin flashed his clearance badge at the guard manning the front desk of the old-looking gray building. It actually looked like a monster, looming against the stormy purple sky that crackled with lightning every few seconds, followed a few moments later with the low moan of thunder.

"Will Tippin, I'm CIA," he stammered, trying to sound confident but he couldn't keep the nervousness out of his voice. And he knew it had to do with knowing Sydney was possibly being tortured behind these walls.

The guard scrutinized the photo for at least five minutes and Will felt that the guard had x-ray vision and would find something wrong with his identification even though it was genuine, standard issue by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The guard finally raised his beady eyes and actually compared the two men. Will was sure that the man was going to get cross-eyed from looking at him too closely and would see him as anyone but the man in the photograph.

Finally he gave a low gruff that was the closest thing he was going to get to a "go in," Will didn't comment on his personality or say a "thank you," and just went into the building. He hurried to the front door that was surrounded on both sides by fences. Despite the fact that he was getting drenched, his curiosity took over, he looked. A training session for new guards seemed to be going on behind one side of the fences. A deteriorated looking man was being jabbed with huge black sticks as about twenty young men looked on.

As soon as he heard the first agonized cry he started walking. Sydney was in there, and not as a CIA agent but as an actual criminal. This place seemed to be using inmates as target practice, he couldn't let that happen to Sydney. He couldn't let anything happen to Sydney, not now that he was here.

A hated like Will had never known began to boil his blood. He would make Vaughn realize what a big mistake by bringing her here. He would make sure to beat the stupid Director twice as much as he'd beaten on Sydney. But most importantly, he was going to protect Sydney and make sure she didn't lost her humanity because some overzealous man wanted to avenge his wife's death.

A new surge of adrenaline pumped through his boy and pushed away the fatigue he usually experience when he worked 80 hours a week. He actually felt a heightened effect take over all his senses which made the pain in the man's cry that much more obvious. But instead of cringing this time, he used it to strengthen his anger.

He felt like he'd walked through hell and back by the time he finally reached the heavy glass doors that led to a part of the building that looked a bit more modern. He pushed it open with all his strength which he realized a moment later wasn't necessary. It opened automatically and caught the attention of the one manning the desk as well as the two guards who were dragging a beaten man with a pulsing black eye across the shiny linoleum floor. He watched as a custodian came by and began mopping up the disgusting dirt and dried blood, leaving no trace of the incident.

Suddenly Sydney's face popped into his mind, pale bruised, her limp body dragged across the floor by two hefty guards. And he pictured Vaughn standing before her, wearing a smirk on his face. He wanted to hurl his guts and punch Michael C Vaughn at the same time, make him bleed so much that he would have to be dragged off as well.

Yup, Michael would do well not to mess with him, unless Michael was ready to duke it out with him and fight to the death.

Will stomped up to the front desk, his face flushed red, his blue eyes clouded from anxiety and watery from fear. He dropped his arms heavily onto the raised marble ledge, then propped his chin onto them.

"MMay I help you?" the frightened, usually strict military trainer stammered when Will glared at her.

"Yyeah, are you the reception of this freaking "Silent Night Insitution?"

The forty-some woman nodded her sharp head.

"Well then, maybe you can help me. I'm Will Tippin from the L.A CIA Headquarters," he barked, flashing his badge which the reception looked at for a second before he pulled it back into his pocket. "And I'm here to see Sydney A. Bristow."

"Right, if you can give me a second to find that information. Please go ahead and take a seat and I will cal you back up when I obtain that intel."

Will almost screamed into her face. He was practically losing control and now this lady wanted to make him wait? But he gave in, realizing that if he made a scene it was only going to make things worse and he might be taken away somewhere to calm him down before he'd be admitted to see Sydney. He went to take his seat and pulled out his wallet and flipped through his pictures.

There was a picture of Sydney, looking extremely happy on the ice rink with Vaughn, red-face, her natural beauty evident in her clear brown eyes and deep dimpled smile. He flipped through the stack until he came to a faded one of Sydney and himself at a Halloween party five years ago, she was dressed as Alice in the Wonderland and he had a mask under his arm.

What a happy day that had been! It hurt him to know he would not be able to see that smile today. Or if he wanted to see a smile, he would have to work to get it.

"Mr. Tippin?"

Will raised his head and looked up into the gently looking eyes of the intimidated woman. "Yes?"

"I found the name Sydney A. Bristow, apparently listed as Kate Jones," she informed him then handed him a print out. "If you can verify the picture then you can go ahead and visit her, assuming you are the one visitor she is allowed."

"Yes, I am," he said quickly then stared at the picture of the agent displayed above the alias, "Kate Jones." "And yes, that is Sydney Bristow."

"Right then," she took the paper back and then stepped back to Will could stand up to meet her gaze. "Okay. I need you to go through that door, the one on my right But as soon as you go through that door, the first hallway you're going through is the...death chambers. And we have 5 pending electrocutions and 2 drownings. It's going to play on your nerves, and you're going to want to look ...but don't."

Will didn't think he'd want to witness the killing of a man, innocent or not, except Michael Vaughn. But he couldn't resist asking the question. "Why? If you don't mind my asking?"

"Because, if they lung or put up any kind of resistance, they will get shot on the spot and the truth is some of the victims in there are not actually on death row, some of them are going through interrogation and torture sessions to coax them to succumb to our expectations."

Okay, Will didn't need to hear anymore of that. He decided to black out everything until she returned to the topic at hand.

"Now, after you get through that, you'll come to a very old looking metal door and the only way you can go through it is to type in a code on the key pad. You can use the last 4 of you're Director Vaughn's officer number."

"Okay, why Vaughn? Isn't there a standard issue password?" Will demanded, not too keen on using any Vaughn codes to get to Sydney.

"This is very confusing and I haven't understood it for as long as I've worked here but this was the main custody chambers for the now defunct..."

"Rapture," Will cut in impatiently. "I know."

"Exactly and the CIA wanted all the other terrorists and convicts to be separated from the ones of that terrorist group. And to keep other officers from getting access, the heads of the department decided that they would be issued a special badge of their field number would be kept on file and they would be the only ones who would be allowed access."

Ah, now it all made sense. "And I'm guessing things haven't changed from then?"

"Right. We do allow people in like yourself because the only way you could get here is if someone from the Rapture informed you about it. I think you know that the former agents on that project still use this place from time to time," she clarified for him then pulled off her irritating headphones and slipped them around her neck. "Then you'll go through that door and you'll come to an area that'll look more modern like this. She's going to be in recovery room 36. If you have any trouble finding it, one of our nurses and attendants should be able to help you. And if you're not comfortable around them, you might be able to find Agent Vaughn, I know for a fact he's not yet left the facility."

"If my luck can get any worse," he grumbled under his breath. "Thank you for your help," he said finally then went through the doors that led out of here.

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

"Is this all I have to do?" a tired Vaughn huffed as he put his signature on the last sheet of paper. He'd already filled twenty-seven forms, then more on top of that, earlier that morning at the Naval Hospital. He laid the paperwork onto the receptionists' desk and slid it towards her.

She gave it a quick flip through and nodded. "Everything seems in order."

"Great, and can you still check up on that issue about having my prisoner admitted here for another day or two so we can give her another interrogation, after giving her adequate recovery time of course," he added harshly when he saw the look the woman was giving him.

"Of course sir, but...excuse my saying this, she is your ex-girlfriend, correct? Don't you think the interrogation should be conducted by someone who wouldn't have a reason to be biased?"

Vaughn's head flipped back to her and his eyes were filled with loathing. "I am not biased I am here as a federal officer trying to get my convict to admit to the chaos she caused before and after she disappeared from the face of this earth. I don't want you to ever accuse me of something that ludicrous again."

Something in Vaughn's deep emerald eyes must have frightened her for she became pale and her mouth opened and closed a few times before anything audible came out.

"Ma'am, did you hear what I said?" he demanded quietly, his gaze levelling with hers. It was clear he was still angry but something had softened in his expression.

"Yyes," she stammered. "II am going to go make a call to the head, Agent Gergson and if he will allow her a longer stay, I will put a call in as well to the Naval Hospital and see what their expert opinion is."

"Screw their expert opinion!" he almost cursed under his breath but at the last moment he backed off and didn't say anything. "Good, I'll be back in five minutes. I've got a few calls to make Do you know how good the frequency is here?"

"You shouldn't have a problem with contacting someone via cellular phone," she assured him with a small yet professional smile.

"TThank you." Vaughn pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and was already dialing by the time he began walking to the other end of the hall.

_"I had a dream that I had a baby...a baby that you are the father of."_

Vaughn shook his head hard. Where had that distracting thought come from? He was angry with Sydney. Why the hell was he feeling guilty.

Vaughn didn't have to think to know the answer to that question. It was because like Will, he was having an extremely hard time believing that Sydney was the evil woman who'd broken his heart and hurt him so much he'd wanted to end his life so he didn't have to feel it anymore. And try as he did, he just couldn't go very long without being almost sucked back into her gaze and the regain the feelings he'd had for her. If he really didn't care, he wouldn't want her to admit to what she'd done to him so bad. He wouldn't want to torture her with a passion as he wanted to now. And he certainly wouldn't have given her relief from the pain he'd willingly inflicted or admit that part of him did believe Sydney was telling the truth. If he didn't, he wouldn't have come out here, breaking his own protocol so he conduct the interrogation.

If he didn't care, he wouldn't be himself.

But right now, all he could think was thought he'd wanted to put her in pain and not tell Sydney about their 4 year old toddler, he now wanted to run to her recovery room and tell her that she wasn't crazy, that they did have a daughter that looked like her as she did him.

Vaughn checked then rechecked the phone number on his screen then pressed the power button to complete the call. There was two rings, and then an official sounding blurb.

"State your name."

"Agent Michael Christophe Vaughn," he spoke clearly into the phone and cleared through. Next he was asked to identity himself as finger print. Vaughn pushed a button on the button of his phone. It made a little whirring sound and then a smooth flat disk emerged from the slot. Vaughn pressed his thumb against it, then pushed it in and hit send like a normal person would do to send a text message. Immediately he got confirmation. Last he was asked to send a picture of himself. He lifted his phone, changed the status to camera and took a picture of himself that also sent via messaging.

Finally the mechanical female voice acknowledged him. "Hello Director Michael Vaughn, which department would you like to be directed to today?"

"The Joint Task Force, Los Angeles CA."

"One moment."

The phone went through a series of computerized beeps that reminded Vaughn of the dial up internet from over five years back, then it finally rang.

"Agent Christa Merriman."

"Christa, hey, it's Director Vaughn," he said briskly to the newest field agent who he assumed was probably smiling now. It was a known fact that this innocent but direct person had the hots for Vaughn, which was perfectly fine with him. She always aimed to please him, she'd probably shine his shoes if he wanted her to.

"I'm actually checking in regarding Operation: 069847533968041. Can you please connect me to senior analyst, William Tippin, please?"

There was a slight hesitation on the line that made Vaughn's blood run cold and made him sense he was being watched. "Um....sir, I actually don't have the most up to date intel but the last I hear is that "Assistant," was the only one who checked back in to us from the rendez-vous point. We haven't heard from "Scientist."

"What? What in the world do you mean by that?"

"Sir, like I said, I don't have the most up to date intel," she whined and he imagined her cringing.

"Well get me to someone who does!" he ordered her.

There was another hesitation. "Right...okay sir, I will re-direct you to Marshall Flinkman. He's been on this from moment one and I'm sure he'll tell you exactly what you want to hear."

Vaughn felt a smile creep onto his face. Marshall, just hearing the name of their hyperventilating inventor eased his nerves, he always happened to come up with ingenious ways to solve impossible situations. "Great, thank you."

"Oh um...one more thing before I do this. I thought you'd like to know Agent Jack Bristow as caught breaking into Sydney A. Bristow's confidential file."

Vaughn rolled his eyes, what else was new? "And?"

"Well Director Vaughn, he put in a call to the Naval Hospital and he seems to have been told that she was temporarily removed from the facility for an interrogation. Were you aware of this?"

Crap. Jack Bristow always managed to end up right where he could totally screw him over.

"Nno, Agent Merriman, I didn't know that, but now I do. Tell Agent Bristow I will look into it and get back to him. Meanwhile talk to security and detain him to do strictly paperwork. I don't' want him on the network."

"Bbut sir, he's the only one we have to go to while you're in absence. What if you do not return and we must go to him?" she retorted which surprised Vaughn and irritated him at the same time.

"I don't care if the President calls in. Jack D Bristow's not to get on the network. I want him supervised when he's logging in and if in the unlikely event something were to happen, I want you to call me and I will decide what to do then," he barked. "no, I don't feel at all good about this situation so get me to Marshall's line in the new five seconds before I accuse you of conspiring as well"

He heard a silence followed by a sniffled, "Right away, Dir Vaughn," which made his heart ache. He immediately got cut off and the familiar beeping filled his ears. He knew he shouldn't have yelled at Christa but he'd had no choice. He'd been caught off guard and he hadn't had the time or the patience to think about how to react. Man, he was really going beat himself up tonight.

He was once again greeted by static-y silence, and he used this time to ponder how he would apologize to the kind and eager to please, Agent Merriman. After all, it wasn't her fault that he was on edge. It was Sydney. He'd thought he'd be able to be blunt with her for once and just be what he was, a CIA agent, a newly-minted director who was treating a convict as she should be. But her fragileness was still there. It was as though the evilness had disappeared or never been there. And because she looked so scared, he found her to be more beautiful, In fact, if he were going to admit it, he'd found her mildly more attractive than usual when she'd pulled the stunt on his wife, he only wished it had been someone else. But when she'd been lying there and trembled under his hard stare, inflicting purposeful torture on her had proved to be a heartbreaking task. The only reason he'd been able to do it was because, one, he really had wanted to know what was locked in her mind. The other reason was that he knew he had the means to put her our of her misery as well.

Though he'd never admit it to anyone else, except perhaps Weiss who couldn't tell a living soul in his current state was that he wanted to let her go and cover up the whole thing. Make sure that she was somewhere where not even the best intelligence team could find her and then keep her there till he could come up with a good enough cover story to prove her "innocence." But at that exact moment, Sydney had hurt him between the legs and he'd had to buckle over to suppress the tears readily forming in his eyes, blurring his vision. Oh yeah, that sweet little Sydney had retaliated, thrown him up against the wall and practically given him the same treatment he'd given her.

That had been his first shred of proof that Sydney was capable of doing the things she'd done to him and the one he thought she cared deeply about.

Vaughn gently stood back up and sighed heavily. So maybe, she wasn't as sweet as he thought she was. Maybe he should just forget all the good times and pretend that she hadn't provided him the love that had allowed his adult life to feel complete. And the first thing he would have to convince himself was there was no double of Sydney framing her, he had to make his whole self believe that Sydney was a killer, a traitor.

But for the life of him, he didn't know where to start. He'd invested a lot of time, pain and tears into this relationship, believing it'd be worth it. And those feeling, they weren't the kind that were just going to go away.

"Hello Federal Agent, please state your name and middle initial so that you can be tested for voice recognition."

Again. Man, he didn't remember security being that tight.

"Michael...C...Vaughn," he stated clearly and surprisingly with stability despite the current thoughts running through his head.

"One moment," the mechanical voice hummed.

Vaughn stood there, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for the recognition to register and transfer him. He was no longer thinking about Sydney, actually he'd pushed back his thoughts as far as they would go. He needed to think about "Scientist," and the Operation he was still in charge of, despite his sick leave. He was the Director, and he'd found out a Director's job was more burdensome than he'd expected, there was no leaving the job, even at home he was still Director of L.A's JTF.

"Your call has been directed, Agent Vaughn. Please be ready to answer the call the moment the line is responded, five second delay ad your call will be disconnected and tracked."

"Right," Vaughn thought to himself. He'd heard this message so many times he couldn't' help but crack a grin. He knew the CIA was very sophisticated and they did have very good reason to be aware of how good their security had to be, but something the CIA was too melodramatic. It almost sounded like the common movie line, "this message will self-destruct in 15 seconds."

"Come on Marshall, don't keep me waiting," he grumbled to himself. He pictured that Marshall was probably trying to get the phone, only he was tangled up in wires and he had to get through that obstacle first.

Vaughn leaned against the pillar and looked at his watch. Come on, he was wasting his time and knowing how busy the CIA was and how it was possible for intel to slip through, meaning Charlie Horse could be in peril, considering the level of security that the mission was.

Finally he heard a static-y noise and a hyperventilating Marshall came onto the line. Vaughn could tell his techie was out of breath by the way he spit out his name.

"Marshall here." This comment was followed by a large crashing noise. Vaughn rolled his eyes as an amusing picture of Marshall toppling out of his chair with wires wrapped around his ankles.

"Marshall, this is Director Vaughn," he introduced himself in a very friendly tone that came off to the panicked inventor as edgy.

"Director Vaughn, oh god! How long have I kept you on hold! I mean, you're sick or you called in sick and having to put your mouth to a receiver is just welcoming more germs into the body and we certainly..."

"Calm down, Marshall. I'm not here to chew you out. I assume Agent Merriman already filled you in?"

"Uh briefly," he murmured and it was clear over the tone that Marshall was feeling very uncomfortable. He wouldn't be surprised if Marshall was sweating. "She did not tell me that you are not at home, in bed, but instead in Texas, actually in an area of Texas that is just showing trees. Can you tell me what you're doing in a grove of trees?"

"Marshall, are you questioning me?" Vaughn scoffed, giving off a sarcastic laugh. "And how in the word do you figure that I'm in Texas, I'm sick!"

"Well um, I screen all my calls and whenever an agent calls in on their agency-issued phone it picks up via satellite because...actually, I think it was you who ordered that service to be implemented. Remember after Sydney went away and you wanted us to be able to pin point Sydney's location if she uses her satellite phone."

"But that was a month ago. That functionality should have been disabled the moment we got Sydney into custody," Vaughn cursed, thinking to himself why in the world he had allowed his phone to be tapped.

"Actually I thought that was the most genius idea you've had since you became Director. Please don't tell me what I think you're going to tell me."

"Disable it, Marshall."

"Come on, Agent Vaughn! I know we used it to find your sweetheart." Vaughn gave him dead air. "I mean your former sweetheart." Vaughn's expression lightened but it wasn't enough make any difference in the way he came over on the phone. "But either way, this functionality can be very valuable, especially if another one of our agents end up somewhere and we need to find their whereabouts," Marshall reminded the person on the other end, laying his back against the system he'd spent weeks working on as a favor to the Director, who'd he liked to say he was friends with. He wasn't about to throw it out because of what stupid personal reason he had,

"True, but right now it's a waste of the CIA money. I'm not saying to totally get rid of it. We can certainly use it in the future. I just want it to be non-active right now," Vaughn replied, getting very defensive that perked Marshall's interest.

"What if I can make it so we can't trace your phone, would you let up keep this going?" Marshall asked in a tone that made Vaughn feel his little friend back at HQ was thinking something was up with him.

"What are you trying to say?"

"If I were able to pull off your number from the screening system, this won't bother you, right? Isn't that the issue here? I mean you called in sick, I'm assuming that you didn't want anyone to know you're in Texas."

Marshall had him there. He'd thought Marshall may drop it but now he sounded like some guy frantically trying to cover up his tracks. IT would be unlikely if the CIA-affiliated agent didn't problem him to see what was up.

"Michael...what are you hiding? Why did you take time off to go to Texas?"

The dreaded question.

"Look, I don't have time to explain right now," Michael said in a hushed tone. "I'm just checking in because no one has paged me or e-mailed me, or given me any notification regarding the Operation with Charlie Horse."

"Well maybe that's because some of the other agents think the same thing, that you should come into work to get that info instead of pretend you're bed-ridden," Marshall suggested, sounding very annoyed. Definitely not the way Marshall usually acted around him. Even before Vaughn had become Director, he'd always had a lot of respect for him. And since the day they'd met, Marshall, in his constantly out of breath

state had clearly shown he had a great deal of admiration for his new agent friend.

But ever since the JTF had gotten wind that he'd captured Sydney and was planning to put her through invasive surgery, Marshall didn't seem to think too highly of Director Vaughn.

Which was sad since Vaughn happened to be the only one Marshall didn't like in the L.A office. Michael had always felt higher than Marshall but he felt it was because he felt that way that he could completely enjoy the techie's stuttering, bubbling comments and come to the rescue equipment. Like he was the star of the football team and Marshall was the nerd everybody loved.

And Syd, well, she used to the one who made him feel inferior because she was collected, so sure of herself, so...

"Agent Vaughn, what are you doing in Texas sir?" Marshall repeated. His voice held a tiny chill as though the appropriate comment to follow would be," or else."

So do you want to read more! Go on to the next part and we'll finally get to the conclusion of this part of the story! And it won't end well!!

Kris


	9. Part VIII: This is not a nightmare, this...

Intense stuff! I know but you're not going to believe what happens here! Thought you needed a break so go ahead and rest the rest of the chapter here

This is not a nightmare...this is life Part VI

Vaughn thought to himself . He knew that what he was doing to Sydney wasn't illegal, but as Will had said, if someone were to report him, he could easily be dismissed from being allowed in Sydney's presence. And with their history, they certainly had enough evidence to make a case out of it.

Should he tell Marshall? Would he turn him in? Marshall had always had a soft spot for Sydney, as though he'd had a crush on her, but then Marshall also knew his wife had been murdered by her. He had to understand.

He also knew if he didn't say anything, it was the same as saying, "Yes, I'm in Texas and all your wildest suspicions are correct."

"MMarshall, is this a secure line?"

"YYes is," Marshall answered without hesitation.

Vaughn blew out a breath but before he could say anything, Marshall hissed, "Is it Syd? You're with Sydney aren't you?"

"If I say yes, will you tell me what's going on with Tippin?" Vaughn inquired, sounding exasperated.

"Yes Dir Vaughn, but only if you will tell me what you're doing in Texas with Sydney because I'm sure that you're not lassoing or horseback riding," Marshall stammered as he zoomed in on Vaughn's remote location. "In fact, the only structure that you're be remotely interested in is the Silent Night Institution." There was a pause that made Vaughn sick to his stomach. He could only imagine what his next question was going to be. "Dir Vaughn?"

"Yes Marshall."

"IIsn't the Silent Night Institution the new place for high-risk death row inmates?"

"Possible, but it's also an interrogating facility," Vaughn corrected immediately, not wanting Marshall to think he was having Sydney killed.

But the damage was done. In the CIA, all agents knew interrogation was just a fancy word for breaking your bones and torturing the criminals' physical and psychological means till they got them to talk.

"Interrogation? Dir Vaughn, you left work and claimed you're sick so you can go to Texas and torture Sydney?" Marshall demanded, Vaughn could hear his voice tremble and Vaughn pictured him scurrying around frantically, wondering whether to report him or not. "Dir Vaughn, that is ...I know you didn't get authorization."

Dir Vaughn didn't feel he had to explain his actions. In fact if he wanted to, he could get Marshall reprimanded for inquiring his decisions. But he decided against it.

"Marshall, you can't say anything to anyone, especially Jack Bristow. I've already had him formally kicked off the network so there's no way he can hear our conversion," Vaughn said in a mild threat. "Do you hear me, Flinkman?"

There was a lengthy pause before Marshall said yes.

"The plan was to interrogate Sydney Bristow," Vaughn began, "But I chickened out. I inflicted a pinch or two of pain but then I gave her relief."

"It's true Marshall," he added when Marshall didn't make a sound. "But she got tortured anyway when she got violent on me. She turned on me, just like she did the day she killed my wife."

"And you pressed the button," Marshall added as though he couldn't believe it.

"I had to," Vaughn insisted, speaking to him as if he thought Marshall would see his side. "She could have gotten away. I'm not going to let her hurt anyone else."

The tech heard Vaughn's voice crack and sighed. As much as he didn't want to believe it, he'd read the report, he'd visited Weiss at the hospital.

"Well sir, I am not going to report you as you are the Director and you run this place and I need a job to support my family and dog and..." Marshall ranted but his voice sounded full of disappointment instead of panic. "Just..."

Vaughn heard Marshall's voice crack this time. "Yes, Marshall?"

"Look Agent Vaughn, Dir Vaughn, Mr. Vaughn," he sputtered, "I've been tortured, I've been on the torturee side of the equation and it's bad enough being beaten up by somebody you don't know, I...I can't imagine how emotionally affected you would be when someone you love...d, can find the reason to inflict that much pain."

"She doesn't love me, Marshall. She's married, her husband is in custody, remember?" Vaughn said gruffly but what Marshall said next made it sound as though Vaughn was just in denial. "And I assume I can leave you in charge to make sure that Tobias only receives the necessities, water, food, a blanket, perhaps a worn pillow..."

"Mike just give it a rest, okay. We don't even know that Tobias is behind all this. He may be just an innocent victim," he paused dramatically before he added, "and maybe Sydney is too."

Vaughn didn't say anything. There was nothing he could say that wouldn't prove he didn't believe Sydney wasn't guilty. Viola Vaughn was the innocent victim in all this and he wasn't about to dismiss her death as an unfortunate accident. After Sydney had left him, he hadn't thought he could learn to love again. Viola had saved him from a life of loneliness and offered to be the light at the end of the tunnel.

"No Marshall, Agent Bristow made the biggest mistake killing wife and unless there is tangible proof that wasn't Sydney, she's going to pay for it...all of it," Vaughn said sternly, flashbacks of happier married days tormented his soul.

"No offense to you sir but...I've read the report. You words. She's in there, Vaughn. She's confused and scared, which is the reason why she attacked you and I think you know it. Vaughn, I know Syd, she's a great person, the best in the Agency. She is going to fight this. She's going to prove herself to you," Marshall insisted and the longer Vaughn listened the more he felt he'd be drawn to believe it, and that scared him shitless. "Just...tell me you'll give her a chance to prove it."

"Well...she's claiming memory loss. The only thing I can think of to help her recall her memories is to conduct the cerebretolosis," Vaughn said after a beat, thinking that Marshall couldn't possibly counteract that.

"Rright, Director Vaughn," Marshall agreed and Vaughn could hear him bite back a sniffle. "I'm jjust, I'm just so scared Vaughn, so scared that we're making a mistake and if we are...and Ssyd went brain dead..."

There was a lot of nose blowing.

That disgusting sound actually made Vaughn feel guilty. He said he'd not let her go because he didn't have proof that she wasn't guilty. But he wondered, did he really have the proof to say she was?

When Francie Calfo was doubled, they'd all been fooled, for months, including Sydney. What was to say she wasn't doubled?

But the nightmares, if she wasn't there, how did he explain her nightmares?

"Um Agent Vaughn," Marshall inquired.

"Uh, yes."

"You said you interrogated her. Did you choose someone to go see her in her three hour window?"

Crap, that's right. Sydney had a mandatory three hour window. What to do?

"I take your silence as no," Marshall cut in then added, "why don't you go and see her?"

Sit with Sydney for three hours? And say what? That it's possible I'm wrong about you but I don't have the proof? Then Sydney would look at him with that doe-eyed expression and she would expect him to make it all right.

That would make no sense to interrogate her tomorrow.

"Marshall, I can't. What am I supposed to say?" Vaughn complained,

"Why don't you suggest regressional therapy instead of drilling holes into her skull first of all," Marshall suggested. "And why don't you two talk? Really talk. Either that or I'm going to your second in command."

Jack Bristow. No, he couldn't let that happen.

"All right. Hopefully she's sleeping because I'm not sure what more I can say than, are you comfortable, or do you need another blanket?"

"Good, Sydney is not expecting more than that. Just don't be a cold wall, even be upfront with her that you're only trying to be nice because it's mandatory that she be comforted for three hours," Marshall told him. "And Agent Vaughn..." his voice became low.

Vaughn gulped. Marshall had been surprising him a lot during this phonecall. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear what Marshall was going to say.

"If Sydney is really bad as all your stories say...I'll create equipment so she'll never forget the pain she inflicted on others."

Vaughn felt like he'd forgotten how to breathe. It had to mean Marshall believe that it was a possibility she was evil, if he would even suggest that.

"Right, thank you Marshall. And I can perhaps speak with someone who can conduct psyche over at the Naval Hospital," Vaughn concluded. "Last thing before I let you go, I just want to make sure you have created that disk containing information on cerebretolosis and to make sure a laptop is en route to her."

"I thought you rejected Tippin's request.'

"I possibly have tortured an innocent woman, it's the best I can do for her," Vaughn sighed the techie was sure Vaughn was lightening up.

"Got it sir, and as promised I will make that call to Scientist and get an update on your mission sir," Marshall chirruped and Vaughn pictured Marshall smiling as he made frantic noises to create Syd's CD and to contact supply to get laptop issued to her.

"I appreciate it. Thank you, Marshall."

111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

(back tracking to Will Tippin)

Room 36.

He'd finally made it. And it had been a long journey. He thought he'd never get through that long hallway of death chambers. It was nothing like he'd expected. All the inmates were in glass-walled rooms, as though they were on display.

It would be better for him to forget that as soon as possible.

Will stared at the door and had the sudden urge to loosen his tie. Did he knock? Should he check with somebody before he went in?

He leaned against the door and placed one ear against the metal. It was silent. He wondered if she was sleeping?

Then he heard a whimper.

A heartbroken, "I don't know why, Vaughn, I'm so sorry."

He'd heard enough.

Will hurridely opened the door and entered the room.. It reminded him strongly of a small hospital suite, minus the t.v

But nothing about the figure on the bed reminded him of the smiling happy Sydney Bristow, his best friend. She looked horrible, her hair was wet and matted against her pillow. Her face was covered with bruises and deep scratches. She winced every time she moved a muscle, it seemed. And her beautiful brow eyes were black around the sockets, and streams of tears trailed down her wan cheeks. And after all that, they had her four limbs stretched and tied to all four corners of the bed.

"Syd?" Will gasped and flinched when Sydney moved her head very slowly. His gaze met hers and behind all that pain and grime, he saw, "oh god Sydney! It is you!"

Sydney didn't say anything. Instead she struggled to get out of the straps and after a few pops and bone-crunching sounds, she broke free. Will slowly walked up to her and could feel the tears work their way down his smooth skin, "Sydney, it's me...Will."

"I know. And I know why you're here."

Will took a step back. If she did, then why was she freaking out instead of trying to embrace him? Let him comfort her in his strong arms and sure grasp. He then moved back towards her, hoping to brush away a strand so he could look at more of her face.

But she covered her face with blue-black arms, only white were the straps still remained.

"Sydney...why are you..."

"Will, I know I shot you," Sydney whimpered under her trembling hands. "I don't know why but...please Will. They hurt me, they tried to drown me and they almost removed one of my kidneys while I was still awake. Please...please don't hurt me!"

"What? Syd, what are you talking about?"

"I overheard them talking about this place. That this is where they brought people who were part of the Rapture," Sydney explained, removing one gauzed hand. "In other words, you can't know about this place or that I was brought here unless Vaughn told you that I was here..."

"Wait Syd...wait a second."

"He told you that I had a dream, didn't he? That I remember killing Viola and shooting you, Weiss and Vaughn," she sobbed, curling into a fetal position. "He probably twisted my words and said that I admitted to it. But Will...I really don't know! I really don't know!"

"Syd, why don't you try calming down," he suggested then smiled gently at Syd. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

Sydney nodded timidly.

"Well I can't do that unless you budge a little," He told her and Sydney murmured a half-hearted sorry and moved her body, cringing as she did.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have made you move."

"No, don't worry about it. It feels good not to be stuck lying flat on this bed," Sydney replied then looked at Will. "You're really not here to torture me and demand I tell you why I did the thing I did?"

"Nno, and if it makes you feel better, Vaughn doesn't have any idea I'm here." Sydney gave him a questioning glance. 'I received intel from an informant telling me you were suddenly moved for an interrogating. He also informed me that you deserved a visitor so I bailed on my friend's dinner and instead of returning on my last Operation, I hopped on the first flight here."

Sydney gave Will a weak but impressed smile.

"So you're no longer an analyst? You're field-rated?"

"Yeah, went through basic training at the Farm and everything, and you're right about what you said that one night."

Sydney scrunched her eyebrows despite the pain it caused her. "What one night?"

"That one night before you began dating Vaughn and I told you that you should quit your bank job and you said that if I knew anything about what you do that I would thank you for doing your job so well. I do, I now understand what risks you took to make this word a safer place."

"Will, please, you're going to make me cry again."

"Go ahead, because Syd, despite how it started, getting tortured and kidnapped in Taipei, hadn't it been for you, I would have never been given the chance to do something so good every day, so...thank you."

Sydney did start crying but Will knew these were tears of joy, a little worry, but mostly because his words had touched her that deeply.

"Do you believe me now, that I'm not here to pay you back for supposedly shooting me in the shin?"

Sydney didn't look like she felt any easier around him but then she lifted herself up with the help of Will's support. That was enough to confirm her feelings without saying it. And Will didn't mind if she didn't say a thing, he'd known her long enough to know with her, actions spoke louder than words.

Will wanted nothing more than to grab her and hold her in his embrace till she felt confident enough that she was safe and strong enough to whack Vaughn upside the head.

But for some reason he just knew Vaughn had set up hidden cameras and he didn't need his boss seeing him so friendly with her, that would blow everything, and worst case, Vaughn might find out about his informant. And after all the guy had done for him, he didn't want him to get charged with anything.

"Syd, it's not that I don't want to hold you," Will said in his calm tone. "I just don't know what kind of tricks Vaughn has up his sleeve.

"At this point, I can really care less what Vaughn does," Sydney argued and made her first bold move by leaning on him.

"Who, you just take a few deep breaths, it'll help you maintain your balance," he cajoled her as he helped her sit up.

"Tthat's not what..." she began but didn't finish her thought. She was way too tired to argue, instead she crossed her legs under her blanket and laid her hands in her lap.

Now that Will could see them clearly, he was able to see just how badly she'd beem mottled. It seemed Sydney noticed him looking because she immediately pulled her hands back.

Will reached for one of them and squeezed it gently, careful not to bother any of the bruises. "May I see?"

Sydney was not the type of woman to admit anything was wrong, or openly admit when she was hurt, nevertheless ask for help or take it without a bit of nudging when it was offered. But she didn't pull back, instead her hand went limp in his grasp.

Will smiled gently as he examined her, turning her hand over and inspected both sides. "No sign of infection," he reported but his expression was still grim. "But they don't look very sterile. Yyou didn't receive any medical attention did you?"

"No, you'll learn Tippin, when you're a convict like me, they'll do the absolute least they have to, just enough to keep you alive," Sydney drawled, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Nah, stop that," Will scolded her as she switched to examine her other hand. "Okay, is that all you cuts?"

"Yeah, they were nice to my lets, not that they're not as bruised as the rest of my body."

Will ignored her last comment and stood up and began searching the cabinets in the room. He finally returned with a clean looking white box and resumed his seat.

"What is that?" Sydney inquired as he opened the box and rummaged through the contents.

"I'm going to help you with those cuts," he told her as he ripped open a disinfecting pad then dabbed the wound.

Sydney let out a sharp gasp.

"Sorry, but you'll thank me later when you heal without any scars," he said which earned him a real smile. Then the room grew laced with tension as it grew quiet and the reality of their situation sunk in. "You know I believe you, right?"

"Yeah."

"No seriously, no matter what you remember or don't remember, doesn't matter," he told her as he wrapped gauze around her tender hands. "I once told you I don't love you because of what you do or don't do, I just love you."

Sydney gave him a very teary eyed smile. If only he knew how much that comment still meant to her. But all she could manage was a small, "thank you."

Will nodded and then fluffed up her pillow before he laid her back down against it and stuffed the covers around her.

"So Syd...I know this probably is hard...and I don't know if you want to talk about it but...what happened today, Syd? What did you remember?" When Sydney turned her head, he added, "maybe it'll give me a starting point on trying to figure out what happened to you."

"WWill, you, Vaughn...all of you know what happened to me, you were all there in my hour of betrayal...and now I know what that moment looked like."

Will closed his eyes. Despite that he believed Sydney, in his memory, there was that moment when his best friend had stood before him and shot him and two other people he cared about, that was never easy to relive,

Sydney reached for his hand then began telling him everything, how she'd had the dream, when she'd woke up, Vaughn stood there ready to use painful means to get her to talk, how she'd demanded him to tell her is she had a daughter, then finally turning on him till he left the room.

What Will felt earlier was nothing. After hearing that, the first chance he got he was going to slam him on a table and laugh as he made Vaughn scream. It nearly killed him that Sydney thought she deserved it.

"First of all, you didn't deserve that. None of it. What you think you remember does not count as evidence. He tortured you without authorization, without viable proof and I'm going to report him," Will promised. "Then I'll beat him up so bad that he will flinch when he sees me. And with him out of the way, I'll be able to push off this cerebretolosis till I've done all the research I can. I don't care if the CIA is a well-respected agency, I don't care if they find some way of kicking me out of the agency for betraying their orders. I will not let anyone put you through a surgery so dangerous that you can permanent brain damage. I'm sorry that just not going to..."

"No Will...it's fine. I've thought about it and...I think the surgery can only be good."

Will was sure he heard her wrong. He had to have. "Excuse me? But...you don't know what you're saying...you haven't been briefed. How can you think that this can be good for you?"

Sydney sat up in bed and stared at Will with the most frightened expression he'd ever seen. "Will, I'm scared, okay? I thought that Vaughn was just blowing off steam and that he'd give me a chance to recover, at least from the initial shock but he...he tortured me, Will. He cut me, he hit me. He looked at me so much anger I'm surprised his head didn't explode."

"Syd, you're getting emotional again. You're not thinking straight, we should wait for me..."

"SCREW THE BRIEFING!" she screamed and pushed Will back. "I'm doing it! I'm just too tired of the way everyone is treating me. This country had convicted me of betraying them and if this surgery will help me remember that, that's just fine."

"Syd, calm down. You don't know what you're saying. You can lose all memory of your life, you can go into a coma, you can..."

"I don't care. I don't care if I don't wake up from this because if I remember what happened, it'll just give them the means to imprison me for life, possibly put me on death row and...if I am as bad as he says and I remember it, I won't be able to live with myself."

"Sydney, please listen to me!"

"I'm devastated, Will. It makes me sick to see Vaughn in so much pain. To me, he's still my boyfriend but now he hates me. I don't know what else he'll do to me. I don't want to ever relive today again. I...I want this to end with happy memories of Michael, not..."

She sobbed and finally she cracked and threw her arms around Will's shoulders and sobbed into his clean suit.

And Will massaged her back soothingly, wishing he could do more. "We'll figure this out, Syd, Okay? Just hold on for me, for a little longer. Put your faith in me," he pleaded to her, hoping she could read his thoughts.

111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

Vaughn finally returned to the front desk, but this time he looked more easier to approach. He almost resembled the nice and assuring agent who comfort Sydney on numerous occasions.

Nevertheless the receptionist flinched when she saw the handsome Director standing there. "Director Vaughn, um...here is your papers," she stammered, pulling out a manilla folder, eager to get rid of him. "Your request to keep her here for another day has been granted by the current head of the institution."

"Oh, thank you," Vaughn replied with a pleasant smile, looking as though he'd completely forgotten. He picked up the folder, sifted through the contents for about a minute then handed it back to her. "Actually, I've changed my mind. I would actually like it if we can arrange for Bristow to be transported back to the Naval Hospital."

"Mr. Vaughn, I did exactly as..."

"I understand but...let's just say I believe I acted a little out of line," Vaughn apologized as he laid his arms onto her desk. "I would actually like to see her if that's okay, and give her a little medical attention."

The receptionist must have bought that the Director was trying to make things right because she didn't argue. Instead she sifted under her desk and brought out a first aid kit. "You know the way I assume, Mr. Vaughn?"

"Yyes, I'll manage. So if you can take care of that, I'll be back for the papers," he asked of her and didn't leave till he got a smile.

Vaughn took hold of the first-aid kit then headed over to where Sydney was being held, wondering what to say, how to react and how to explain his change in heart without making it sound like he'd forgiven her at all.

He found her way to the wing more easier than he ever thought. He was going to have to go on instinct with his approach and responses.

He took a deep breath when he reached room 6 and knocked on the metal door, thinking it's be more polite than to just walk in.

No answer. Right, he'd tired Sydney to the bed.

He reached for the doorknob but it began turning before he could do so. Someone was inside. He'd left Sydney confined to her bed. Who was in there without his authorization?

Vaughn backed up, put on his stern face, ready to interrogate the figure that came out. "It better not be an officer," he thought to himself, gritting his teeth. "And it better not be some guy coming to torture her some more." He wanted to oversea any treatment regarding Bristow from now on. In fact he was going to request a log when he went back to reception, assuming he lived through this meeting.

Thirty seconds might have passed before the door opened and standing there was a very angry, very tired Will Tippin.

"WWill, Marshall's been trying to call you. I..I thought you were on Operation Charlie Horse?" he asked, looking very surprised that he almost lost his footing.

"If you were at the office like you should be, you would know that operation was a set up. We had to abort," Will retorted, his eyes narrowed, his arms tense. "And if you're wondering how I found out she was brought here, I don't think it's any of your business. I probably saved Sydney from going absolutely insane! You should thank me."

"Will...I know you're upset and yes, it is good that you came. I won't ask you how you found out," Vaughn promised him as he backed up, his body trembling. "Hhow is she?"

The answer Vaughn received was a punch to the side of his face that sent him whirling backwards.

Vaughn put his hand against the wall and steadied himself. "Okay Tippin, I deserved that."

"Yeah, but not nearly enough," Will spit as he grabbed Michael by the tie and yanked him forward. "I tell you to brief her on the cerebretolosis and what do you do? You bring here, you claim you're sick so you can damage her in her fragile state. Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Will....wait, I didn't torture her. I didn't, I just questioned her, but of course I cam down hard, as I am trained to do," Michael insisted knowing that dealing with an angry Will could only be catastrophic. "But those bruises, it's because she turned on me. I lost control of her."

Another yank and then Will kicked him on the shin and sent Vaughn sprawling on the ground. "True, but you let it happen. I bet you just left them to do what they did. Did you even hear what they did? Did you have the balls to watch that confused girl get whipped and pushed down in a water tank till she almost drowned?" Will didn't wait for an answer. Instead he said, "what the hell right do you think you have to be here?"

"Will, before you do anything, let me explain," Vaughn pleaded as he got to his feet. "I realize that despite what she did to ...us, that doesn't mean my actions weren't rash. But I'm trying to make this right. She'll by flying back to the hospital tomorrow with all the comforts of home. I...I'm even going to suggest regressional therapy before we even brief her on the cerebretolosis."

Will kicked Vaughn in the chest and pushed him back against the wall till Vaughn's face turned pale.

"You're too late, Vaughn. Sydney has agreed to the surgery and...I didn't even have to convince her to cooperate."

"What?" Vaughn croaked out which just tempted Will to shove his foot deeper into Vaughn's chest.

"Yeah, she wouldn't listen to me. She told me she doesn't care about the brain damage or the odds of her going into a coma because after what you did to her today, she's scared shitless. She's afraid of what else you'll put her through that she said she doesn't care if she dies!" Will stated in a matter of fact tone. "And yet, despite that you broke protocol and destroyed all sense of hope in her, she doesn't blame you for a thing. And she still loves you...how sick is that?"

"Will," Vaughn coughed despite how much pain it caused him. "Don't you remember what she did to us? I'm trying to put that aside and help her. But I can't act like Viola didn't die, will. I can't.'

Will moved his foot and dragged him to feet by holding his hand around his neck. "Vaughn, I want to kill you, I want you to suffer so bad but Syd doesn't want me to. That's the only reason you're not dying tonight."

Then finally Will let the agent go and walked off, if he didn't walk away now, he might really kill him.

"Will, if Viola had been your wife..."

That was it! Will turned around in a split second before he barreled over to Vaughn and began punching the daylights out of him, slipping in quite a few curse words. Lucky for Vaughn, a nurse saw the brawl and notified two guards to separate the two of them.

"Take him away, he's assaulted a high-ranking officer," Vaughn stammered as a nurse helping him onto a stretcher. "Need...air."

"VAUGHN! Where do you think you're going! I'm not finished with you!" Will screamed as the guards dragged him away. "You just stay away from Syd! YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER! When I get back, I'm going to report you, YOU'RE FINISHED VAUGHN!"

That was the last thing Vaughn heard before he passed out.

And so did Sydney.

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So Vaughn and Will hate each other, Vaughn changes heart a bit too late! Now it's on to getting Vaughn reported and more intense stuff!

I am currently typing up my chapters for my other fics so those reading those as well as this, rest assured, I am looking to update ASAP!

And so please review! Let me know you guys are still reading!!!

Till next time,

Total Vaughn Lover


	10. Part IX: The Consequence of Mixing Work ...

A/N: Happy new year and let's hope that J.J has a good year planned for Vaughn and Syd, I know that I'll be tormenting them as much as possible so their possibly future reunion will be that much sweeter!!! Ha Ha, nah, I actually have one fanfic which is currently…pure bliss! Read and enjoy. Review if you can.

When She Was Bad

Total Vaughn Lover

The Consequence of Mixing Work with Life

(In a briefing room for a disciplinary hearing: Langley)

"Agent Michael Vaughn"

At the mention of his name, Michael tentatively stood up from his seat and faced the board of directors, who for some reason had allowed Will Tippin to witness the assessment. "Yes sir," he stammered, hoping that not being addressed with "Director," at the beginning of his name didn't indicate he'd lost his respected position

"Agent Vaughn, you are Director of the L.A Joint Task Force, are you not, sir?" another woman that frighteningly reminded him of Betty Harlow, his first supervisor in his CIA career, demanded. Vaughn knew that everyone in the office knew very well who he was. They just wanted him to state it then demand if his recent actions were behavior the board should expect of a CIA director.

He could only pray that his body didn't suddenly speed up his production of perspiration.

"Temporarily ma'am. I have only been asked back to my former office because we now have fugitive former Agent Sydney Bristow, in our custody. My normal work centers around the new office in District of Columbia, Washington D.C," he replied truthfully, struggling to keep himself in check. He wished he could loosen his tie, but he didn't. That would indicate he was nervous and he couldn't give them any reason to indicate he wasn't the right man for the job.

And he certainly wasn't about to give Will that satisfaction.

He still couldn't believe Will had reported him. He remembered him vaguely screaming that he would but it had come off as a threat. But no, after being released from the guards grasps, it seemed the high on himself analyst had wasted no time in getting through to the proper channels to report why he'd really not shown up at the office.

But still, weren't he and Will friends? Despite what had happened to Sydney, he'd thought Will had that much respect for him to talk to him first, allow him an explanation when they were both calmer.

Apparently he'd been wrong about Tipping.

But then, Will probably thought the same thing about him. And the Vaughn from five years ago wouldn't have dreamed or thought of doing what he'd done to Sydney.

"State your full name for the party present, would you sir, followed by your current title."

Though this sounded redundant at best, Vaughn obliged without a second thought. "Michael Christophe Vaughn, I'm the Director of the Washington D.C office," he stated firmly, coming to attention.

He knew that they were playing mind games with him to psyche him out. And he wasn't about to give them that satisfaction either.

"Agent Michael Vaughn," a Kendall type boomed, coming to a stand, his hands gripping the table so hard that his knuckles turned white and made the whole table shake. "I am going to read you the "charges," incidents, if you will, that let to your behavioral hearing today. If you have any objections, please hold them till the end."

Vaughn made himself look as unemotional as possible. "Yes sir."

"Agent Vaughn, two years ago, you became the Director of the Joint Task Force in Washington D.C, and it actually came as no surprise as your reputation proceeds you. Your countless years of working for the United States Government has been solid."

There was a pause and Michael pondered whether he should thank them for the nice comment. He thought better and remained silent.

"And then once again, you proved yourself capable of taking on more responsibility. It's been less than three years and already, you've organized the newly-created Washington office into something that very much resembles our very efficient L.A office," the Kendall type continued. "Your father would have been proud."

This comment Vaughn couldn't let go without commenting. "Despite the current circumstances, I thank you for your saying that."

The Kendall type nodded his bald- head to acknowledge him then rustled some more papers.

Michael quickly shot a look at Will who was looking like he wanted to jump up and demand why they were praising him.

The spokesperson seemed to notice because what he said next was far from praise.

"Having pointed our your excellent record, that is the reason it is so shocking that we would have to call this meeting. And to do this efficiently, we decided we should focus on what caused the downfall in your work performance," he then paused before adding very delicately, "You were in the beginning, former Agent Sydney Bristow's handler, were you not?"

Vaughn trembled slightly with anger, barely able to keep from demanding where they were going with this. It had only been three weeks since Sydney had returned after betraying the agency for five years. He knew the board knew very well he wasn't emotionally ready to go down memory lane.

"Answer the question, Agent Vaughn."

"YYes," he replied after he somewhat recomposed himself. "I was Bristows CIA contact while she was working undercover at SD-6."

"And you were aware of the fact that there are rules that depict strictly how a handler should act towards his asset."

Michael closed his eyes. They were going to nail him for every unprofessional move he'd made in favor of Sydney. This couldn't be happening.

"Viola, give me strength," Vaughn prayed, "tell me you're watching over me."

"Mr. Vaughn?"

"YeYes, I am aware," Michael stammered as calmly as he could. But the situation couldn't have been more uncomfortable. IF the board was going in that direction, he was sure Will was just about to find out how deeply he'd been feeling for Sydney and for how long. That couldn't be good.

"Well, you may have been aware but it seems that even if you were, you chose to ignore it. Confirm these events are correct: 1. You once gave Agent Bristow a Christmas Present. 2. You assisted SD-6 when they'd been raided despite being ordered to stay put. 3. You were removed as Bristow's handler but somehow you two conspired not only to get your reassigned but promoted. 4. You've followed Agent Bristow to offer your assistance in her own operations, despite the fact that you were ordered to await further instruction, coming from Sydney's father, Agent Bristow himself. 5. You assisted in braking her out of FBI custody when she was considered a national threat. Just to name a few of course."

Michael saw Will's eyes grow round and he was sure Tipping was now convincing himself that he still had feelings for Sydney. Things couldn't get worse than this.

"They are correct," Michael stated, mournfully. "But I'm sure you've noticed that no charges were ever filed. And the results of my actions benefited the agency. Bristow turned out not to be of national threat, that turned out to be her mother," Michael countered, trying not to get too drawn into the flashbacks that started flashing in his mind.

_"You okay?"_

_"You never believed that I was guilty."_

_"No, you think I'd throw just anyone in my trunk?"_

"Luckily for you, Agent Vaughn," the Betty Harlow twin interjected. "Moving forward, after The Alliance was annihilated, I understand you and Agent Bristow formed a personal relationship causing you to break policy several times in pursuit of the woman you loved."

"We were an excellent team, ma'am," Vaughn put in defensively, "I believe my work performance was actually enhance by my partner at the time."

"We won't deny that. But what we've come to realize is that you were the ideal agent, never questioning orders are you father did, until you met that headstrong Sydney Bristow. Seems since then you're having problems keeping your professional and personal relationship apart. I'd have to say you're lucky Devlin was such a leanient director. If any of us had been your supervisor, we would have called you on it and ordered a transfer."

Another awkward pause. Michael wasn't sure how much long he would be able to listen to this and not show the Director's some kind of disrespect.

"Finally, we're coming to the recent events. I understand Agent Bristow betrayed your per your report in July of 2003 and then not too long after that did she become a traitor of our country. She seemed to be following her mother's steps. Finally you were able to let Agent Bristow out of your life, you were married and your work performance once again became seamless. But things went right back to the other way after your girlfriend kidnapped your wife. You once again denied Langley's specific instructions and went to Berlin to intervene with Bristow, taking Tippin and Agent Weiss, resulting in Weiss' current comatose state."

There was a pause, probably a moment of silence for Weiss, a very painful silent moment for Vaughn.

"And when Bristow murdered your wife, you became very obsessed with finding her…and when you finally did, you sought revenge."

Everything being said was true but being stated that way, it didn't sound real. Being read a list didn't describe the emotions behind his actions or the important details he'd written into all of his repots. This meeting made it sound like this was all his fault, that Sydney was a clever distraction and he'd fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.

Wait a minute…he had.

"But the worse of all these events is what you did recently, Director Vaughn. Even after Agent Bristow was medically diagnosed as having amnesia at the Naval Hospital, you ordered her to sign that she would undergo an invasive brain surgery to force her memories that Hq would definitely not have approved. Not only that but you put an operation in jeopardy by not monitoring it as a Director should. Instead, you took Bristow against her will again to the Silent Night Institution and conducted unrestricted interrogation without authorization. Agent Vaughn, do you honestly feel your latest actions are within the qualities of what a Director or a leader should have undertaken, assuming that they can't be also considered criminal?

Vaughn felt his guilt kicking in. Yes, he hated Sydney for ruining his life but he'd allowed himself to feel guilty, so guilty he'd actually considered comforting his ex-love. He'd opened that door and walked through it. There was no turning back.

"No, I don't believe I've acted as a Director should. I took advantage of my position and the trust the agency has in me," Michael added solemnly. I'm ready to hear the consequences for my actions."

Michael noted Will sit up in his seat, apparently waiting for their judgement to be passed, and ready to milk it for all it's worth.

"First of all, Agent Vaughn, we want you to understand, we are not inhuman. There is motivation behind all your actions which we can personally understand, however professionally, we will admonish you for not compartmentalizing your emotions," another older man began, apparently the highest ranking office in the room. "You are still going to be acting Director at your current office and as your office is handling the Bristow case, we will not restrain you from seeing her and we will leave it in your best judgement on how you should continue to deal with Bristow."

Vaughn nodded his head.

"At this time we will also not press any charges but understand that the next time you go against any given order or create an order out of policy, you will be dishonorably discharged form employment with the state government. You can also be possibly charged in a federal courtroom resulting in time for any further offenses. Is that understood, Michael Vaughn?"

Michael nodded his head, even though his pride didn't want to let him. His pride wanted him to demand what anyone else in the room would have done differently, were they living his nightmare of a life.

Michedney, his four-year old daughter and wanting to be a good father and be able to support everything she wanted to do, was the only reason he didn't call Will on his behavior when he saw him smirk.

"Yes sir."

The Betty Harlwo look alike then stood up and walked over to Michael who cringed slightly as her clacking footsteps came closer and closer. When she was finally standing right before the much taller Vaughn, she thrust an official looking black folder his way and Michael took is nervously.

"In place of punishing you for your bad calls, we've decided that you should undergo psychiatric therapy to keep you from making anymore unprofessional decisions. You are to start seeing Dr. Barnett regularly once a week, at least for two months. We've already discussed this situation with her. The schedule is included in that folder. As you are Director, there may be times you cannot make then, but at that time you must notify the behavioral committee and get a written e-mail response allowing you to miss the session. Any other absences will be dealt with swiftly and harshly."

"I understand," Vaughn replied, carefully placing the folder into his briefcase.

The stern expression on the woman who represented his former instructor at the Ram softened as she squeezed Vaughn's trembling hands. "Michael, we know you've been through a horrible time and we believe Dr. Barnett is going to be able to help you deal with the pain, grief and anger so that you can move on and again perform as the excellent agent we know you are. There are a precious few of those Agent Vaughn and we want to retain as many as we can."

That comment warmed Michael's confused heart so much that he was able to look into the woman's clear blue eyes and offer a heartfelt, "thank you for your discretion and for believing in me."

Surprisingly, she smiled as she said, "make us proud, Agent Vaughn." Then she addressed everyone in the room with a pleasant expression. "Well short as it was, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the behavioral hearing for Michael Vaughn. But we ask him and Agent tipping to remain as the officer of medical intelligence has a few things to comment on regarding Agent Bristow's cerebretolosis."

After that was said, all but two of the board members rose from their seats and filed quietly out of the room. When the room was empty an agent in a lab coat came to a stand.

"Mr. Vaughn, you can go ahead and assume the seat next to Agent Tippin," He said briskly, as he looked irritably at his assistant, who was having problems bringing up the presentation.

Michael silently made his way over to the chair and looked at Will who was glaring at him.

"Do you mind Agent Tippin?"

Will didn't say anything, he only watched Michael descent into the seat next to him with a look that was clearly to make Michael feel uncomfortable and unwanted.

And damn, it was working well.

Hey! Thanks for all your support last year! I'm looking forward to your feeback this year so please keep reading and I'll keep writing. My new years resolution is to write more often because you guys are the best!!!

Here's to another year at !!! Cheers!

Total Vaughn Lover.

p.s as always, if you want to know when it's updated, leave me your e-mail addy okay, Thanks!


	11. The Watch and The Ring

A/N: Hey, thought you deserved another chapter, so here ya go!!!

When She was Bad

Total Vaughn Lover

The Watch and The Ring

Michael stared at a paragraph out of the French version of The Tale of Two Cities, he had propped open on his lap. He knew he'd been starting at the same fifty words for probably five minutes but for the life of him, he couldn't seem to get any farther.

He finally closed the book and shoved it into his briefcase, which is when he noticed that the sun was going down. He sat back in his comfortable chair and checked his watch.

Five hours. They'd been grounded for five hours. He grimaced. The behavioral hearing had ended sooner than he'd expected and even though there'd been a briefing regarding Langley's stand on Sydney Bristow's cerebretolosis, they had headed into the air before noon. Now it was eight o'clock.

Vaughn laid back and sighed, feeling very alone. They'd made a pit stop to the naval hospital five hours ago so that Will could give Sydney the laptop and the disk containing all the information the CIA had on the cerebretolosis, tests, results..failed cases, ect.

In other words, his suggestion for regressional therapy had been completely overlooked and they'd instead decided to grant Sydney her "request."

It had turned out to be five hours of moping and reminiscing for him, because he realized, had he thought more deeply about Syd's situation, he wouldn't have ever brought up the cerebretolosis.

He put his hand into his pockets and his fingers brushed against something unexpected. It was an object he had left forgotten in his pants pocket and he knew it had to have been at least two years. He hadn't worn this particular suit ever since he'd married Viola, ever since he'd made Director…ever since he'd vowed to put Sydney behind him.

But somehow that morning, when he'd checked his suitcase, he hadn't been able to find a shirt or tie that he felt suited the mood, until he remembered he'd created a secret compartment in the main compartment. Inside he'd found the last suit he'd worn before taking Sydney to Santa Barbara and gotten rejected by her.

He swallowed back a cry as his fingers traced the outline of the object. He immediately knew what is was that he'd left there. Two things that used to mean a great deal to him, when life used to be fun despite being on call 24/7 because Sydney would be there by his side or be waiting for him with a smile when he finally came home after a day of saving the world.

Two things he'd swore he'd never think of again until maybe before the moment he knew he was going to die, if that.

But now that they were in his presence, he needed to see them. They served as reminders of happier times and Vaughn needed something positive now.

He could feel his heart slow down as he gradually regained control of his rapid breathing. He slowly drew out the first item.

Michael's heart wrenched in pain at the sight of the ornament, more specifically a special silver watch.

The one thing his father had bestowed to him during on of their very first father-son moment, that he could remember at least.

(flashback)

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"_I got it! I got it dad," a six year-old Michael Vaughn squealed as he skated after the black puck, unlike most kids who were clutching onto their parents' hands, swearing they'd not like them anymore if they let them fall._

_Michael's father, Will Vaughn was standing by the net, serving as goalie for their impromptu game. Agent William Vaughn, famous for the serious expression he was currently sporting still looked like he was having fun._

_A little too intense maybe, but fun._

_Michael paused about five feet from the net and then made to look like he would shoot from the left, but at the last second, he turned, kicked off to the right then shot for the goal._

_Some miracle happened because the puck slid quietly to his father's feet. William flashed his "cursing," son a smile and shot the puck his way. "Nice try, Michael, but you're still to predictable. Remember, you can't hand away all your cards if you're expecting to win the game."_

_"I know, dad," Michael sighed in that, "geez," tone but then he got all excited when the puck was reachable with his stick. "Come on, dad, let's go again!"_

_"Maybe a little later. Let's take a break," Vaughn's father suggested as he took off his heavy gloves and then skated to the edge of the rink and sat down on a bench. "Come on, Michael, the ice is not going to melt. Besides, there's something I want to talk to you about."_

_William was sure he'd never seen his son so sulky. Michael look like he'd been told that he had to go the dentist._

_After what felt like an eternity, Michael dragged his feet over to the bench and sat down, but instead of greeting his father, he pulled out his "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," water bottle, took a few gulps then studied it as though it was the most interesting thing in the world._

_"Son, you done with that bottle?"_

_William's voice was tender but there was a slight sternness that Michael could detect._

_"Yeah," he answered then shoved the bottle back into his back pack and raised his clear emerald eyes to look at his dad._

_William looked pleased and began the conversation. " Michael, you know how much I love your mom, right? And how much she loves me?"_

_Two sarcastic responses formed in six year-old Vaughn's head. Not again, since I'm the center of humiliation every time you kiss mommy when you actually pick me up from school and, she must to deal with your leaving all the time._

_But then another horrible thought stuck when he saw a seriousness that was deeper than usual hung in his father deep stare._

_"Aw man, you're taking mom out to dinner tonight aren't you and you're going to leave me with a babysitter," Vaughn grumbled. "Da-ad, I'm six years-old! I'm practically all growed up!"_

_William just stared wide-eyed at his son and chuckled. "Actually, that wasn't my plan but thanks, Mike. That's not a bad idea," he agreed. "And you're right, you are a big boy, dealing with my never being home and I appreciate you always taking care of mommy."_

_"How do you know what I do when you're away," Michael demanded. There were a few times when he'd gotten into the cookie jar that even mommy didn't know about and he wanted to keep it that way._

_"Like Santa Claus," his father replied matter-of-factly and then he reached into the pocket of his heavy winter coat and pulled out a shiny silver watch. "And since you're doing such a good job, I wanted to officially appoint you as mommy's protector. This is for you."_

_Michael's green eyes grew wider than the first time he'd ever seen a hypodermic needle as his father placed the watch with it's own wrist band into his hand. It looked so big and important in his small palm. "Wow, thanks Dad! I bet no one at school has one and now that we're learning how to read time, I'll be able to read what the numbers say!" Michael cried excitedly that he almost dropped the precious gift. But William saved it from sliding out and then curled Michael's fingers tightly around it._

_"Michael, take care not to break this watch. You can set your heart by this watch and it's not meant to stop till that time," Michael's father explained in an almost grave tone._

_"What do you mean by that, dad? Does that mean my heart will know to stop going when the watch doesn't work anymore?" he asked worriedly and subconsciously put a hand to his heart, wondering whether his heart knew he'd almost dropped the watch._

_"No, no, that's not what I meant," William assured him and took his son's hand away from his chest. "I'm talking about like what I found with your mom. When you meet someone you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with. Someone your heart will tell you is the one for you."_

_"Y-you mean…girls?" Michael groaned, looking disgusted. "You're telling me you think there's a girl for me? Ugh! They have germs! I mean, all of us guys steer clear of any girls except our mommies."_

_"That may be true now. But it's not that I think there is, I know there is. Even I started that way, but look at how happy I am now that I've met your mother."_

_Yeah, Michael couldn't deny that._

_"I'll have to take your word for it dad, but…even if I'm six, I'm not old enough for girls."_

_"Yeah, you're probably not," William chuckled. "But…my job, even if I can't tell you everything I do…you know it's dangerous and I…I don't' know. I wanted to give you this watch now and that comment came along with it. Don't think I expect you to suddenly go to school and fall in love with somebody….but when that girl holds your hand or takes her seat across from you at the table and you feel that second hand stop ticking, you'll probably know. If you're lucky, your heart will tell you first."_

_Michael probably didn't believe him at the moment but he said, "Okay dad, if that's true, the moment it happens…I'll let you know."_

(end of flasback)

Michael felt tears rolling down his cheeks the way they always did when he reminisced his father. But immediately after that, he found his lips pull into a tense smile as he went into another flashback.

Fortunately, this wasn't as intense, but equally memorable.

(Flashback)

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_Michael left his car and then, after making sure no one was around, he slipped into the warehouse._

_He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed his sweating and creased forehead. He was just a short distance away from Sydney. His asset. The one he would create a countermission for so that SD-6 would feel like they accomplished something when it would really be the CIA who did._

_And it had been hard enough to look into her fresh, beautiful face and talk business, but he knew it was going to be harder now since Sydney had learned of his reunion with who she knew to be his ex-, Alice._

_No, it was hard because he was her handler and he was falling for her, hard. And not being able to say anything was absolutely killing him!_

_So today, he was certainly going to hint._

_If only his heart would stop beating so rapidly he might survive this meeting without embarrassing himself._

_He finally reached a fence and he could see Sydney in her casual work fashion, her arms folded. He hoped he hadn't made her wait long._

_When he could finally catch his breath, he pushed the rattling fence open and Sydney turned around and gave him a smile before he was prepared for it._

_"Hey," he said, wishing he didn't sound out of breath._

_"Hi," she returned, as calmly and gracefully as always The look she gave him was definitely questioning why he sounded like he'd run here._

_Somehow, he was able to remain professional enough to listen to Sydney's complain on the CIA not using Will for further employment and then of course, what that sick bastard Arvin Sloane wanted her to accomplish for them this weeks. And more amazingly, Vaughn managed to stay on task and empathize with her on the uncomfortable subject of her best friend when what he really wanted to do was tell her how badly he had it for her. No offense to Alice, and let her in on the genius get away plan he'd started planning since he'd watched her leave in her bozo red hair the first day they'd met._

_As usual Sydney turned to leave but today, Vaughn didn't let her. In fact, he called out to her in a tone that would suggest to Syd, what he was about to say wasn't about the missions or furthering Will's employment, or any lame good luck comments. No, he was going to break protocol and because of the apparent awkwardness, Sydney paused and was hesitant to look at him. She thought he was going to say sorry about Alice…again, which would just compound the face that he couldn't help out her best friend's lack of job._

_"Syd?"_

_Sydney paused and slowly turned to glance at him. Her eyes were wide and innocent…and maybe a tad scared because his voice was timid and low and of course, it only got that way when he was about to say something he felt could be inapproriate or something he knew he had to say, but didn't know how to say._

_Sydney was silent but her doe-like eyes said enough._

_Vaughn reached into the pocket of his gray suit jacket and grasped a very important looking silver watch, and after squeezing it for good luck, brought it out._

_Vaughn half-expected her to gasp. The way he was presenting it could be an interlude to a marriage proposal._

_Oh yeah, except he'd made that big mistake of not telling Sydney that he was back with his ex. Instead she'd found out through his girlfriend herself when she'd arrived at the hospital as his emergency contact._

_But didn't Sydney know how he felt._

_Weren't soulmates just supposed to know?_

_Now don't get him wrong, he was thankful if he didn't let her get away, maybe for the first time in two years, he could imply he had feelings for her if she really didn't know it already._

_"This watch belonged to my father," he began, pausing at the word, "father," to prevent the tears from coming out any farther than right behind his eyes._

_She just gave him that thoughtful, "I'm listening," glance, which was the only thing he needed to urge him to continue on with the story._

_"It's broken now," he added a bit hurridely as though he knew Sydney would want to look at the time, as though he thought that would curb her curiosity._

_Sydney must have noticed it and backed off._

_Vaughn seemed to feel a little more comfortable so continued. "But it used to keep perfect time. He said," there was that pause again," you could set your heart by this watch."_

_Now Sydney was giving him that, "oh come on, Vaughn, that was years ago," expression._

_"It stopped October 1st," He stated, studying her expression, hoping that the date would register. When it didn't, he added, "the date we met."_

_He looked at Sydney who had that look of realization coming over her strong face, more importantly, he could tell that she was touched._

_They were able to share probably a millisecond to exchange a smile before the CIA reminded them of how much controls they always had on their lives in the forms of their beepers going off._

_Vaughn reached into his pocket and sighed._

_"Kendall."_

_Sydney had reached into her pocket and gotten the same message. "Me too."_

(End of Flashback)

At that second, Michael certainly hadn't known whether she'd meant that comment to mirror the fact that she'd gotten the same annoying message of if it was to say had she received a watch from her father, it would have stopped on the same day.

Now, though, everyone knew where that had led, and now it served as one of his first mistakes. He put the watch back into his pocket, mentally making a note to get it fixed. Maybe dad would send someone who wasn't out to break his heart this time.

His palm now felt a velvety box and though he wasn't sure why, he pulled it out.

As he'd suspected, it turned out to be the first and most precious jewelry box he'd purchased because of what was contained in it.

He opened it up and gazed at the delicate canary diamond set between two diamonds of equal size, all set in a simple but stunning silver band.

Simple and stunning, just like Sydney Bristow.

This flashback, he knew, was going to be the worst, but if it was going to come, he couldn't stop it. So he closed his eyes and prepared for the worst. Which he always found ironic. It was supposed to have been the happiest day of his life.

(Flashback)

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_Vaughn opened his eyes as their plane landed and looked over at Sydney who was sleeping somewhat peacefully on his shoulder._

_He swallowed when he heard her breath, "Fran," in her sleep. He knew how painful it had to be for her to lost her best friend and then find out she'd been doubled. That was why he'd post-poned his plans to propose to the lady in his life._

_The original plan had been to drop her off at home after getting Sark into CIA custody, let her pack and then he was going to pick her up, assuming he survived the debrief. Then he was going to take her on a vacation to Santa Barbara and surprise her with a marriage proposal._

_But when he'd found Sydney passed out o the floor with a bullet in her shoulder, it had been straight to the hospital for Sydney._

_Then of course, he'd had to spend the next few months being the understanding boyfriend and give her adequate time to mourn her best friend's death as well as wondering if Will would come out of his coma, while the ring continued to burn a hold in his pocket. He had to have loved her a lot for him to let Sydney disappear for weeks at a time so she could try and find some normalcy in her life without asking where she was headed or when she would be coming home._

_As long as when she returned, she headed straight for him, that was enough for Vaughn._

_Six months and Michael could wait no longer. He booked the same room in Santa Barbara like he'd done that milestone of an evening, swearing that it he didn't make it this time, he would never ask Syd to marry him again._

_Hence the reason why they were currently sitting on a plane, just grounded in Santa Barbara island._

_"Syd? Baby? The plane's landed," he whispered then kissed her on the cheek. He pulled back to see her reaction._

_Her eyes were opened and she smiled, but Vaughn felt there was something missing behind the dimples and the crinkles at the edges of her youthfully bright eyes. Something he hoped to regain when he asked her to be the companion for the rest of his days and if possible, make him the chance to the father he wished he'd had one day longer since he'd died._

_"Well come on, Syd. Our vacation is only a week long. I hope you're planning to spend the majority of it doing stuff with me and not sit on this boring plane," Vaughn joked as he leaned in to nibble on her ear._

_Then he stood up and reached his hand to tired-looking Sydney and pulled her up, all the while convincing himself that her weakness was due in fact to jet lag and that as soon as he got to the huge balcony at the top floor of La Superica, and let her breathe in the salty air, she would perk up and be the Sydney he'd loved since the day they'd met._

_Within a few hours, Vaughn and Sydney made it to the hotel after telling the driver the wrong direction eight times just to be funny._

_"After you, Ms. Bristow," he said cheerily after slipping the card in to unlock the door._

_"Thank you, Mr. Vaughn," she said sweetly and then kissed him till he lost all balance then opened the door. But then all he heard was a gasped, "V-Vaughn!"_

_Exactly the reaction he'd been looking for. He came through into the room and was pleased beyond reason. It was just like he'd wanted. He'd called ahead to make preparations for the room to set the mood since he hadn't been confident he could do it all himself._

_And looking at it all now, it seemed that the four credit card charges he'd allowed a week ago had paid off._

_There were many candles lit, giving it all a soft glow and a trail of rose petals led to the balcony where waited a small table and two chairs. A basket sat on top with his favorite wine and two passes to the best restaurant in Santa Barbara._

_But what was most beautiful of course was Sydney, who stood in the middle of it all, with wide eyes, her slender figure bending and turning every which way to look at every last detail. She was wearing just a plain tank and beige pants but she looked perfect and the way her hair cascaded around her face that was glowing because of the candles made her look like an angel._

_Vaughn was just glad this was his angel._

_"Syd, would you come with me for a sec?" he asked her and took her hand before she could protest and led her out onto the balcony._

_He gently sat a shocked Sydney down onto one of the red cushioned chairs and then before he lost his nerve, he unbuttoned the top of his shirt and then pulled her face to his and gave her an intense kiss, aimed to make her incoherent for a moment so that when she looked down, he would already be down on his knees, ready to make his proposal._

_And that was exactly how it happened._

_While she reeled from the taste of his lips on hers, Michael had gotten down on one knee. In his trembling hands was an open blue jewelry box. Sitting inside was the most beautiful engagement ring in the world._

_He looked at her with green eyes, glistening with tears and Michael was sure Sydney's heart had skipped a beat. Why not, he'd never looked so happy._

_"V-Vaughn?" she asked tearfully, "what are you doing?"_

_"I thought it was obvious," he said with a white grin, trying not to be discouraged by that question. "But if it wasn't, that's okay. It will be. Here goes nothing." He then closed his eyes for a moment then when he opened them, it was like a new man was kneeling there, a most romantic man who was ready to do what men feared most._

_"Sydney A. Bristow, your entering my life made my life that much more difficult and I'm not talking just about cause we are agents, though that probably didn't make anything easier. I assume I had the same effect on you. Yet, I think we complement each other in our work so naturally, I know you're the one Syd, my soul mate. My dad was right. I was able to set my heart by this watch. It led me to you, the most amazing person in the world."_

_Sydney remained silent but something flickered within her eyes that made Vaughn's heart leap with joy but it wasn't enough. He was expecting a bigger reaction so he continued._

_"I know that after you joined the CIA, you've realized that everyone you've put your trust in has betrayed you. Sd-6 was not a black op division of the CIA, they were actually the enemy. Your dad is the reason you even lead this spy life and your mother was not only dead but maybe a traitor to the U.S, and of course…she killed my dad." He paused and grabbed for her hand and made her look at him. "Yet I have been there through it all, and though I'll never say I'm perfect, not even close, I have tried to be the one constant in your life. And I think…I mean, I hope after all we've gone through, you know you can put all your faith in me and not only will I take care o you, but I will make you the happiest woman for the rest of your life."_

_"God V…Vaughn…please."_

_"S…Sydney…and I know you're hurting these last six months with all the Will and Francie stuff but I'm think this is the right time. I'm here to tell you you no longer have to hurt by yourself and you don't have to ever think you have to hide your problems from me. They'll be our problems. I'm going to be your home, Syd. All you have to do is answer one simple question…"_

_(Can everyone guess what that is? ) )_

_"Will you marry me…Sydney Bristow?"_

_There…it was out._

_And now Sydney could either break his heart or make him the happiest man in the world with what she said next. Michael wondered if she was aware of just how much power she had right now?_

_"Vaughn….you want to…marry me? After all we've gone through you know I'm not easy girlfriend, not to mention I've been so distant recently," she whispered as she squeezed his shaking hands with hers, tears of fright clear in her big brown irises._

_"Yes Sydney, I do. Now it's all up to you to decide what our future is going to be. Please Syd, just say yes."_

_Sydney just stared at him and Vaughn couldn't understand what was keeping her from saying, "yes!" Wasn't this what they both wanted?_

_"S-Syd? Sydney, what are you waiting for?" he chuckled nervously. "I mean I can understand if you want to let this moment ride out like some scene from a romantic comedy but…can you go about it more quickly. Y-you're killing me, Syd."_

_"Vaughn….no…I'm sorry."_

_"SYDNEY! I knew it! Oh baby, we are going to be so…." But then Michael paused when he realized she wasn't in his arms and they weren't kissing like no tomorrow. "Wait…what did you say?"_

_"No, Michael…I won't marry you," she repeated, sounding more strong about it this time._

_Those words stabbed him deeply in the heart and made him feel numb. He wasn't sure if he should be angry with her, or if it should be with himself for pushing her too early. Or maybe he still didn't believe her, maybe he didn't want to believe her. "What? Syd…I don't understand," he stammered, his body trembling violently. "I mean…we live together…we always talk about how we can't be away from each other…you…YOU GAVE ME A DRAWER!"_

_Michael knew it was lame but he didn't know how to react._

_Sydney didn't say anything. Instead, she stood up, dropping his hand like his touch meant nothing to her. Vaughn didn't even have the strength to look at her. This was so embarrassing for him. He'd been so sure!_

_"Wait…where are you going?"_

_"I…I'm sorry, Vaughn," he heard Sydney say from the other edge of the room._

_"Yeah, she better damn well be sorry," he thought brokenly._

_"I should have told you but there's…there's someone I have to meet. I'll just make the plane if I leave now."_

_Wait, Plane? What the hell was going on?_

_"Sydney, but you're on vacation, with me, for a week. It's illegal for them to send you on a mission," Vaughn argued, trying to make sense of everything. "Unless you're not going on a mission…"_

_"No, not sanctioned by the CIA anyway," Sydney said hurridely and by the time Vaughn looked up, he saw that she'd changed into a red wig with cascading curls and a very tasteful cocktail dress._

_No way._

_"Vaughn, I don't know how to say this but the only reason I came with you on this little trip was because this was the only way I could get away from the CIA. I…I never intended to spend the week with you."_

_Okay, Vaughn was sure she'd just shot him, that was how badly he was pained. She'd used him. She'd used his happiness and turned it into his worst nightmare. She'd never intended to spend the week with him._

_"SYDNEY BRISTOW!! YOU…CAN'T BE…SERIOUS!" he huffed as he got to his feet while Sydney just watched, as though wondering why he was being so ridiculous. " I just poured my heart out to you and all you have to say is YOU HAVE TO GO?"_

_"Vaughn, please, I'll just make the plane…."_

_"SCREW THE PLANE!" Vaughn screamed, shocking even rebellious Sydney. "What does this mean? Have you been having an affair with someone else? Is this the thank you for my trusting you, back stabbing me in the back? Is that what you've been doing while I've been wondering when you're coming back, dating someone else!"_

_It was as if Sydney had not heard him as she only grabbed the handle to her suitcase and rolled it to the door without a glance of apology to Vaughn._

_"WAIT SYD! Before you go out that door, answer this one damn question…are you seeing someone else?" He demanded then in a defeated tone he added, "have you fallen in love with someone else?" as he got his feet and then went to bar the doorway with his body._

_"Michael, please…you don't understand," she whined then when Michael didn't move, she shoved him away the way she did with any goons that got in her way. Vaughn landed on the floor and didn't move, he just stared at her with loathing. He looked ready to say, "oh hell no!" and punch the daylight out of her. Obviously he didn't deal with heartbreak well._

_"Vaughn, I know you're upset but…these six months have been…like you said…hard. So hard that it's changed me. I'm a different person now, Vaughn and that's not your fault at all. But…I can't do this. Had you told me this was your plan…I would have saved you the trouble."_

_He knew this couldn't be what Sydney would say even though he was seeing her full lips move with his own two eyes. "Syd…what's going on?"_

_"Excuse me…I don't have time for this."_

_"I'm giving you a chance to come clean, Syd. I mean did you get yourself into trouble? Is someone watching you right now…is that why you're saying these things? Who's making you say these things Syd?"_

_"Vaughn, you're crazy, no one's making me say anything," Sydney stated firmly. "I just won't do this. We were both wrong, you're not my soul mate and…you'll be better off forgetting about me."_

_Sometime during that time Sydney must have looked away because she was not prepared for what she saw when she looked back at her distraught boyfriend, Vaughn had pulled out a gun and he was pointing it at her. She gasped._

_"Syd…don't make me have to tranquilize you. You know I don't want to, but you know I will."_

_"Vaughn, stop joking. I know this is coming off as a shock but…"_

_"Syd, one last chance. Tell me what's going on," he threatened her, his green eyes narrowing. "Or I'll phone your father and have him get permission from Langley to bring you in."_

_And Vaughn pulled out his cell phone with his free hand to make sure Sydney knew he wasn't playing around._

_"VVaughn, y…you wouldn't tranquilize a pregnant woman would you?" Sydney demanded suddenly, giving him her best mournful look._

_And sensitive Vaughn gave her the reaction she expected. "You're pregnant, Sydney?"_

_"Yes," she replied, not sounding at all enthusiastic about it, but her hand did go to her stomach, perhaps to look as though she cared about motherhood._

_There was an awkward silence. Vaughn finally put them out of their misery by saying," uh no…I guess I wouldn't." He just continued to gape at her in shock, and the weight of his hand became so heavy he could no longer hold his gun up. He couldn't believe what he was about to say. "So, this is it, then? Is this what you really want? Me…out of your life? Because if we break up now…like this, I don't know if I even want to stay friends with you."_

_Michael wished he wasn't crying while he looked into the eyes of the woman he would give his life for, his heart breaking more with every passing second. "Syd?"_

_"Yes," she said after a beat. "I think it'd be better if we…broke up."_

_"Oh?" That just sounded too easy and heartless for Vaughn. "And do I get a say in this?"_

_Sydney just stood with her arms folded over her non-existent bulge._

_"No. Okay…it doesn't surprise me. I'm not successfully getting any answers out of you today," Vaughn shrugged, rubbing his hands together, not sure what to do, afraid of tomorrow when he'd be alone and worrying about Sydney would no longer be his concern._

_Then it suddenly hit him. He only hoped Sydney didn't notice._

_"Syd…so, speaking from a fellow agent point of view, are you leaving forever?"_

_No answer._

_"Okay. When are you coming back then?"_

_The same._

_"Well…what do you expect the CIA to think? If you leave like this, you know what they're going to think Agent Bristow," he reminded her as though he were still her handler, giving her guidance even though there was only a very slim chance she would listen._

_"Whatever you tell them," she replied with the first trustful glance of the evening, as though believing Vaughn would cover her butt after what she'd just done to him. As though she still thought it was right._

_"Syd," he began with difficulty, lowering his gaze to the floor. "I…I can't cover you." But then somehow he got the strength to lift his face and look into her eyes as he said, "No…I won't cover you," he said more firmly, the two distinct creases forming on his forehead._

_There was another awkward silence and Vaughn expected her to call him a wimp, or a loser or something of that sort._

_"Breaking up is a bitch, isn't it?" Sydney sighed, cocking her head to the side, half laughing, if that was even possible. "If you're really intent on telling them the truth, Agent Vaughn, you'll probably not get very far as you don't know anything other than that I'm leaving. But be fair…give me a ten minute head start."_

_Be fair? Yeah, like Vaughn was give her that. A normal person would probably not get away in ten minutes but Sydney was a spy and an excellent one at that who was the master of improvisation and thrived on the challenge of talking herself out of any situation. Who knew where she could be? She'd definitely get away if that someone were planning to extract her._

_"Fine," Vaughn huffed, the wheels still turning in his head from minutes ago. "This will be the last nice thing I'll do for you since I don't want to be the bad guy. But…"_

_Sydney looked at him uncomfortably, she knew what he was going to ask for._

_"Yes, Michael?"_

_"Can you…kiss me? One last time," Vaughn pleaded but it came off more as a won't take no for an answer situation as he'd already gotten to his feet and then in seconds he'd walked over to her and laid his rough palm on her smooth and definite cheekbone._

_Michael almost smiled when he saw how willing Sydney was to do it. Maybe his plan was going to work. Maybe something was going on and it wasn't that she didn't want him. He could only hope one thing would go right tonight._

_"Ok…one last time."_

_And Vaughn took advantage of the situation, kissing her deer than she wanted, pushed his body against her harder than was comfortable for two exes and he probably provided more enjoyment than she'd expected, more than she'd be able to handle._

_"Oh Michael."_

_But Michael pretended like he didn't hear her. Instead, he pushed his hand into his pocket and then grabbed her behind her neck and pressed his palm into her skin until his mouth was right next to her ear. "Syd, I don't know what's going on…but I am your one constant. I'll save you Sydney, whether you want me to or not."_

_And Sydney miraculously squeezed him back as if to say, "I know you will."_

(interruption of flashback)

Vaughn blinked his eyes till he could see clearly again and immediately realized that they were in the air. It was the turbulence that had woken him. He loosened the hand from the arm rest he was holding on for dear life and flexed his fingers.

"So, you're finally awake, Director Vaughn?"

Michael's eyes immediately focused to that who was in front of him and gasped when he saw Will. He swiftly closed the fist he had the ring in and nonchalantly placed it back into it's box and shoved it back into it's previous location. "I guess so, Tippin," he replied pleasantly, "how long have we been in the air?"

"Three hours. ETA to L.A, an hour and thirty minutes," Will replied while he sorted through some paperwork on his lap. Vaughn was about to say something friendly but Will cut in with, "so I'd suppose you'd want someone to interrogate Tobias Seacrest when we get back to headquarters. I assume you'd want to as it's Sydney's ex or accomplice but I think you'd do better to stay away from the case as much as possible."

Ah, directly to business and directly to bashing the Director. Nice.

"Yes. I agree with you and therefore, I would like it if you'd let Jack Bristow know I would like to appoint Agent Dixon to do that since we don't know whether the man in our custody is guilty or not," Vaughn agreed without attitude. "I don't want anyone to think we aren't being somewhat hospitable. After all, he did not resist arrest when he caught him in Marseilles," Vaughn pointed out and started writing with an electronic pen on his personal pda.

"Done," Will stated, typing onto his open laptop on his table and the added. "I suppose after writing your operation report you will be heading home. I'll make sure no one contacts you unless there is a dire emergency."

Since when had Will appointed himself Vaughn's right hand man, or no…Vaughn's boss?

"More and likely. I appreciate that, Will."

Vaughn saw Will's hand tighten and he knew it was because he was acting friendly towards him. Fortunate for Vaughn, Will didn't deck him, not physically at least.

"So… "Mike," I'm curious."

Vaughn gulped, this could not be good.

"All that stuff they covered, all the rules you broke and then going far as to get demoted because of Sydney, is that all true? I mean, you've got an excellent record. You really want me to believe that you basically trashed all that for my best friend?"

After the recent flashbacks, Vaughn was not ready to answer any Vaughn/Syd questions but he replied with a short, "yes." Even though he didn't care what Will thought he wanted him to believe.

After a beat Will said, "I asked Sydney the same question. She confirmed it all too, which is why I can't believe you can hate her so. Then of course, she started crying, wondering where she'd gone wrong. And you…you've taken such a deep place in her heart, she doesn't even listen to her best friend anymore. I told her you're a jerk, that she should detest you but…she cries."

Vaughn's heart wrenched painfully within his chest after hearing that revelation. "How is she? How is Sydney? Were you able to get her to take the laptop and the…the disk?"

"Of course she did," Will replied shortly and his gaze answered the question with, "what do you think?" "She's physically looking better each day, regaining her color, if that's what you're asking."

Actually, it wasn't but he didn't bother elaborating. He instead nodded, pretending to be satisfied and went back to his Tale of Two Cities, trying to look as though he didn't care what he had done with Sydney for him to stay five hours.

"Vaughn, just so you know," Will began and when Vaughn looked up, he saw Will had shut down his laptop and was currently shoving paper back into his briefcase. "If you ever…EVER, pull that stupid stunt with Sydney, breaking her down till she's unrecognizable…you will not LIVE to see another behavioral hearing. Am I clear, Director Vaughn?"

Michael raised his eyes to see Will's clear blue ones were only inches away from his. "Yes, Agent Tippin. You've made yourself perfectly clear."

Will looked as satisfied as he was going to get and then without another glance he headed picked up his stuff and headed to another seat clearly to get away from him.

Vaughn didn't fight him. Hey, it was probably better for the both of them.

Michael had to take a minute to adjust to the silence and to refocus on the small print in his book, but the end of that last flashback was forcing itself back and he just let it come.

(continuation to flashback)

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_Michael released Sydney then stepped back to gaze at her beautiful flushed face, trying to figure out if she had felt something. She was red, but then, she was always pretty rosy. "I..I don't know what else to say. I don't think there's anything else to say except…you take care of yourself Sydney." He then looked down at his watch. "Ten minutes, I hope you know what you're doing."_

_"I do," she had replied as she pulled her coat on and then she turned the doorknob and slipped through the door without looking at him. But something slipped to the floor, a little sheet of paper._

_Michael leaned against the door to hear her footsteps were walking away. He locked the door then immediately dialed Jack Bristow, asking him for assistance and surprisingly he complied without demanding what he was doing in Santa Barbara with his precious daughter. He clicked off and pushed on his headphones, impatiently waiting for it to connect to genius of the CIA, good o'l Marshall. While waiting for the connection he went over to the floor and picked up the piece of paper._

_It smelled of Sydney's perfume. He remembered smelling something distinctly different on the plane ride over. She had planed this whole thing. He immediately unfolded it, written clearly on one side was, "Michael. I'm surprised you didn't ask. I know you wanted to know so I'll tell you. The baby I'm carrying…it's yours, not that she'll ever know. I'll make sure of it. The only way you can do that is if you catch me but…we both know you won't do that. You still love me. Sydney."_

_Though the revelation itself was shocking, it was what Vaughn had expected. Which was the ONLY reason he had requested to get a kiss from the girl who'd completely torn him apart._

_"MMarshall Flinkman…CIA resident genius."_

_You had to love him._

_"Marshall, it's Agent Vaughn. Listen, I just used that stuff on Sydney. She did pull her move tonight and I want to make sure it's working. Tell me we're tracking her."_

_"Okay, One second Agent Vaughn."_

_Vaughn waited and while he did, he pulled out a mysterious bottle of liquid of out his pocket. To anyone else, it would have been mistaken for perfume. Had anyone found it and used it, that would be all it would be._

_But Michael knew what it was, a bug, and the cleverest one Marshall had ever engineered. And he'd just pressed it into the back of Sydney's neck. Course he loved her, and of course he had really proposed to her and had really gotten his heart broken. And it wasn't that he didn't believe Sydney didn't want him._

_But he also knew that Sydney was lying to him._

_"Okay, establishing connection. Sending info to your e-mail Boy Scout."_

_"Copy that," he stammered as he hurridely walked over to his suitcase and set up his laptop. Within moments he was logged onto the CIA web site and he had received the information Marshall had relayed to him._

_Now all he had to was watch…and wait._

(End of Flashback)

YO YO YO! Enjoy that much ? I sure hope you did! Please review and I'll update faster, my new years resolution.You'll see little by little why Vaughn and Syd went wrong and what happened during my version of the missing years. Please review my other fics if you can, I'd appreciate it! OH and just had to say Vaughn was sexy as the British guy trying to do business. "And I'm not your brother so you need to shove off." And then how about MARHSALL. "It's like finding a pin within a country of haystacks. But I know what I have to do so, SHUT UP!"

Lataz,

Total Vaughn Lover.


	12. Two Tough Calls Part I: Will and Dixon

A/N: So, just wanted to say that I am so glad my lastest fic has not lost the popularity that it gained way back when I first started it and let me assure you, I am committed to making this the fic that you dream it will be!

You all have no idea…what I have in store for you!

Without any more boring comments let's move onto.

When She was Bad

Total Vaughn Lover

Two Tough Calls

Part I: Will and Dixon

Will Tippin sat at his computer and typed, all the while debating whether he should state that it was Vaughn's fault why his first field mission after the Sydney situation, had ended up a total failure. He looked hard at the sentence which could result in more counseling sessions for the pretty-faced director and he had to admit, very good friend.

Well, once upon a time. But you all know Will, he couldn't get his friend demoted, his grief was evident, what had happened was true. He only wished that Michael had found a different way to cope with his pain, something that didn't include torturing Sydney more than she already was.

Besides, Sydney would probably find out and then he would have to explain it to Sydney who didn't blame Michael for a damn thing and after all this, he didn't feel like going through another argument with his best friend that Vaughn wasn't good enough for her.

He wanted to see him wince more but he hit the delete button before he could change his mind. Will cringed like he'd just pulled a bandaid off. Obviously, he wasn't satisfied with the way Langley had let Vaughn off so easy.

He'd tortured Sydney. That sanctioned a restraining order at least, didn't it?

"A…Agent Tippin, a…are you okay?"

Will punched the save button then closed down his screen as he always did when there was company. It wasn't that he was doing anything wrong, just that he preferred no one else to see anything he was writing before it was done, a habit he'd gained back in his old job as a journalist.

"Y…yeah, I'm fine," Will answered as he faced his company that consisted of hyperventilating Marshall, who had first-aid kit in hand and his beautiful partner who he hadn't seen since leaving her on their botched mission. "Marshall…I'm really okay."

"O…Oh of course you are!" the nervous techie sputtered, still holding the box out to the agent. "Just, you know, you looked like you have pain just now and it's not a secret that you've had a long day with that Director Vaughn hearing this morning, not that he didn't deserve it. And um, I just realized you're here but the Director didn't check in. Do you know what happened because he's our boss too, unless he was de…"

"Marshall!" Helen cut in sharply, shocking both of the calm gentlemen, well somewhat calm. "Oh sorry," she added quickly and put her hands on Will's. "Marshall, I didn't mean to be rude but you were doing that rambling thing again."

Marshall looked hurt for about a second but then he looked at Will for an honest response. "Was I?"

Will didn't want to lower Marshall's confidence in anyway but he nodded, his expression looking apologetic.

"Well, at least uh…take this!" the inventor pleaded, pushing the small white box into Tippin's confused hands.

"But Marshall, I'm okay," Will protested. "Besides, if anything needs healing, it's my headache and wanting to protect mytraumatized best friend. A few alcohol swabs and band-aids are probably not going to cut it."

"Lidocaine could take the edge off though," Helen pointed out as she tossed her hair back into a low ponytail. She then took the case herself from sweet Marshall which seemed to have put a kink in his way of doing things and really threw him off. "Thanks, Marshall, you are the only one in the office trying."

Marshall looked star-struck, or hypnotized by Helen's beautiful peepers. "Oh uh well…glad you're back Will. If you need me, I'll be tinkering or something in my uh…"

"Office?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed, looking impressed and degraded at the same time. He watched them for a minute longer then headed back to his cubicle, finally picking up on the signs that Will and his new, "Sydney," wanted a moment alone.

"One second, I'm sorry," Will apologized, squeezing "Assistant's," hand then hollered for the inventor who immediately redirected his attention. "Can you get Agent Dixon for me? If he's not in, please call him in. I've got orders from the Director."

Marshall flashed a thumbs up and a smile, glad to be useful for once since their interaction started today, then went off to accomplish the task.

Will then looked at his partner who looked at him in the, "I'm concerned but I want to know why you couldn't call me to let me know you'd be delayed," way. "Hey, I know, I'm sorry. I should have told you I'd take longer but…everything happened so fast and…"

Helen continued to stare at him.

"I know it's not an excuse but…things happen," Will muttered, shrugging his shoulders. "Besides, it's not like we had a date or anything."

After he realized what he'd said and how he'd said it, he instantly wished he hadn't said anything.

"No, you're right, we didn't," she agreed matter-of-factly. "But you did abort the mission when _you_ were the head of it. Then _I_ had to write out the corresponding report all by myself, though I wasn't trained so if it comes back," she added, curtly, pulling her hand back and folded her arms instead. "And I even compromised my position by allowing you a personal phone call during operation, remember?"

Will did. And guilt was eating him now.

"Hey, it was work-related, within policy a tortured victim is entitled to three hours of…"

"Had it not been Sydney Bristow, you wouldn't have been so fast to jump on that wagon!" she accused, her voice so sharp other agents turned to look. "So don't even try to play the policy card with me. You have an informant watching our Director's moves without him knowing about it and that, Agent Tippin, is out of policy!"

Will grabbed for her hand and made her look at him. He saw pain in her eyes and tears streamed her flushed cheeks. He realized the signs, she was jealous of his closeness to Syd. If he recalled correctly, so did Jenny. (Back in season 1)

"Helen, I…I don't know what to say."

"Obviously. I'd think after what I've been doing for you, covering your butt while you use your accessibility to access forbidden files and gather information on a case you're banned from, an explanation would be cordial at least. And if you're weren't going to do that, you should have just stopped at I'm sorry."

Will squeezed her hand and looked her in the eye. "Had I done that, would you have stopped asking?"

Helen looked away. The stare was too intense, especially for the office. "No," she sighed. "I guess not."

She saw Will had cracked a smile to relieve the tension and couldn't help but smile back. Her concern then went directly back to his aching head. "So, you have a headache, even though I've told you that I already sent in the report and it was accepted and filed away as completed?"

"A little," Will admitted, rubbing his red-rimmed eyes. "I haven't slept much the past few days."

Yes, his partner was now examining him and noticed how gaunt he looked, his cheeks pale, bags that looked like light bruises under his eyes and his movements were tired. Even standing straight seemed to be a chore. She would have supported him but she felt Will would freak out or yell at her. Instead, she folded her arms and leaned in. "You look like hell."

"Thanks," Will retorted with half a grin.

"No, I mean, like you haven't slept in days. Didn't you grab some shut-eye on the plane? You probably didn't want to talk to Director Vaughn."

Will raised his head and gave her a sick smile at the mention of his name. "You know, Helen, you're probably the only one in the office who still addresses the son of a b with his title and actually believes it means something," he chortled, putting his hand onto the table for support. "And to answer your question, No! Vaughn wouldn't stop asking questions so I left the area. But it's amazing. When you detest someone so much, the farther away you are, the more you start thinking what he's thinking and then you just irritate yourself because you know he has no right to think about her, let alone, worry about her. But you know, if you sit there you're going to be even more pissed so you know what you do, you sit there and anticipate the moment the wheels hit the runway so you can run as far away from him and make yourself believe you'll be okay."

Will paused and put a hand to his sweating forehead.

He needed a moment

This time Helen didn't hesitate to put a hand onto his trembling shoulder. "Will, that's where you should be, home. What are you doing here?" she cajoled him, like a mother comforting a child.

"Because in my case, as soon as I push Vaughn away from my mind, I immediately start feeling responsible for Sydney's decision to undergo the cerebretolosis!"

He began weeping openly, which felt strangely comforting for him. And then put his arms around her as though it were an involuntary movement. This action raised a lot of questions in her head, and for some reason they weren't all relationship or infatuation related.

"Will, please talk to me."

He pulled away and nodded solemnly. "But not here," he said, then took her hand and led her to a secluded corner of the rotunda. (The famous flirting corner ) He finally dropped her hand then stared at the floor.

"Is it Sydney Bristow? Is that what's keeping you up at night?" Helen inquired, trying her darnest not to sound jealous.

"It is. Oh god, Helen, things can't get worse than this!" he shouted then punched his fist into the wall so hard it bled.

"H…How is Sydney?"

"Fine. She's a really strong person and I only knew her as my best friend. I've heard stories about her as an agent, she's like legendary but…now it'll only be a matter of time before she'll be so broken, she'll be unrecognizable."

"Will, what do you mean?" Helen demanded, so sure that Langley couldn't have allowed more torture for Sydney, could they? She only hoped that it wasn't because HQ had agreed with Vaughn that he'd been let off so easily. That would just kill Will.

Helen however wished she hadn't asked. Will launched into his story of finding Sydney the weakest he'd ever seen, not being able to comfort her or change her mind, and then he added how Sydney scolded him that afternoon punching Vaughn.

"And she wanted to know if _he_ was okay! I thought I'd been doing her a favor. And then she said I was lucky, I've not been written up!"

Helen looked at him uncomfortably. "Well you did deck our boss. Even though he may have deserved it, the CIA does not look highly on disrespect or disobedience to a senior officer. You are lucky Director Vaughn didn't write you up, especially since you went to Langley to report him."

Will couldn't believe this! Who's side was she on? "I guess if I didn't detest Vaughn so much, then maybe your theory would make sense," Will exhaled as he leaned back. "I just wish that Syd would let me help her. She doesn't have to do the cerebretolosis. Even her favorite "Vaughn," is recommending regressional therapy."

"Well, you're her only ally right now so I know you'll think of something or she'll come around first," Helen whispered as she straightened the lapel to his jacket. "You know, I'm off and I haven't eaten. If you want you can come to my place and we can do more of that illegal researching and I'll buy Chinese take out."

"It's past nine."

Helen shrugged her shoulders. She was on call all the time so it didn't really matter to her or any agent for that matter what time it was. "Are you in or did Director Vaughn order you to be here?"

Will pulled her to him and kissed her fully on the lips, surprising Helen a little, but at the same, pleased, like having her favorite childhood teddy bear come to life.

"Agent Tippin."

"I thought the kiss would have answered the question," Agent Tippin said huskily against her cheekbone, "Vaughn thinks he can tell me what to do but he's terribly mistaken. And he certainly can't tell me who I can or can't see out of the office."

"Okay, it's a date but I think you should address the third party before we get out of here," she murmured, her cheeks turning nicely rosy. She also embarrassingly put a hand to her mouth.

Third party? Crap! They'd received uninvited company and he hadn't noticed. Will took a deep breath to compose himself then turned to the other agent.

It was Agent Marcus Dixon, Vaughn's right hand man and the nicest agent in the rotunda if not the rest of the agency. Though since discovering Sydney's betrayal, he became a robot, executing and doing his job without emotion, his words consisting of short answer to commands from the Director.

"Dixon, hi, so Marshall did find you," Will questioned brightly and shook his rigid hand. "How late are you working tonight?"

"I was called in by Marshall," Dixon answered solemnly. "If you're back, does that mean Director Vaughn has returned?"

Another Vaughn devotee. Will was heading straight to the bathroom after this.

"Um…yes. I didn't mean to call you in but Vaughn wanted me to make sure I let you know that he would like you to interview Dr. Tobias Seacrest."

Dixon looked at Will as though he'd just been insulted. This was the first sign of emotion he'd shown since Sydney's return a few weeks ago. "Director Vaughn wants…me to interrogate the filth who could be responsible for Sydney's…Sydney's…"

He was too upset that he didn't finish the thought.

"Yes Dixon, but it's probably not what you think," Will added, as though trying to stop a tantrum from happening. "You know that ever since this nightmare happened, Vaughn has been able to only count on a certain few. He trusts you. You were Sydney's partner before she was welcomed into the CIA, and you are living proof that even terrible black ops like SD-6 can create exceptional agents."

"Are you trying to butter me up, Agent Tippin? Cause it's not going to work. Ever since Sydney went and betrayed all of us…this rotunda has become a desolate place with robots working. No more humanity lingers here," Dixon cursed, looking very lethal. "I hate this place. Hadn't it been for the fact that Diane's gone… and I'm the only one left to support the kids…I wouldn't be here."

Will understood exactly what Dixon was saying Sure he hadn't been in the CIA five years ago so there was no way he knew what an emotional asset she'd been to this place, but he imagined that it probably had a similar effect to when Sydney had suddenly left Los Angeles, left him after Francie had died. He didn't know anyone who was more than happy to see him no matter what state he was in, even when he showed up unexpectedly and she had been forced to show up at the door without any makeup. No one he'd met had a brighter smile then hers or shinier eyes…or cuter laugh…"

"Dixon, I think you and I and, maybe Vaughn, are the only ones who believe she couldn't have done this besides her parents," Will pointed out, trying to let the former partner know that he wasn't alone in this. "And as little as we've accomplished since she's gotten here, and as hard as it is to obey protocol, just being allowed to be in her presence, being allowed to help her find out what she's done and something she doesn't know, why she did it…it gives me a sense of purpose. I don't know about you but the only reason I slave around this place is to make a difference in at least one person's life. And if the one person is going to be helping Sydney clear her name then…I'd die for her. I would, Dixon," Will pronounced, making it sound as though he was still in love with his best friend.

It also made Helen very uncomfortable, which was why she just stood there silently, watching two strong men, trying to regain the strength they'd lost.

Dixon's eyes narrowed but in seriousness, awed by Will's loyalty to his friendship with Sydney, even when everything proved she'd betrayed them. Even if he had a scar on his body from having to have a bullet removed that had fired from her gun.

"You are the last one she spoke to before she disappeared, the last one who unmistakably heard her gentle voice," Will reminded him, even though doing so would mean forcing Dixon to relive that moment. "You are so important to her that the one she called wasn't Vaughn, it wasn't me or her mom and dad… it was you. She needed you then and that's why she called you, because she knew you would understand. Really understand and you would really listen without trying to make it all sound good like I would or think a kiss would solve all her problems like Vaughn would have. You were her mentor."

Dixon closed his eyes as the last conversation with the old aimiable Sydney trickled into his brain till they formed a memory.

(Flashback)

_"Quiet kids," Dixon hushed his two children as he headed for the phone and picked it up. "Dixon Residence."_

_"D….Dixon?"_

_"Yes…" the father figure answered swiftly but then he felt his heart had stopped when he realized who it was on the line. "Wait a minute…Syd?"_

_Silence answered the question. _

_"Oh my God! Sydney! We've been looking for you! Vaughn is going crazy without you and y…your baby, oh that angel, even though Viola is definitely doing well…she misses you."_

_"Dixon, please stop. Vaughn is with the baby and he's found the new woman of his life. He doesn't miss me. You realize, I didn't call him…I called you."_

_"You're crazy," Dixon admonished her, as he quietly hit a record button to tape the conversation. "Michael Vaughn will drop anything and everything if you will only return to him. You're the one that denied him that happiness Syd, which is so unlike you.'_

_"Sure, he really would want to leave his picture-perfect family to go on the run with me, an escaped convict."_

_"Sydney…." Dixon stated more seriously. "Where are you? Was it your mother that helped you break out?"_

_"No. My love…my true soulmate. He's the one who helped me. And now (sniffle), I'll never leave him."_

_Dixon couldn't believe how in love she sounded. And he couldn't' understand why she sounded so heartbroken as well. He motioned for the kids to go outside and then returned to the call. "The only man you've been spotted with before you were….caught… before you had your baby was…Dr. Tobias Seacrest. (A Pause) No….no Sydney, he's a known assassin."_

_"'To the world, yes…but to me, he…he's…ev-ery thi-ing I….want."_

_Now Dixon was sure she was crying, and recording or not, he needed to help her. "Syd, you're in trouble. I can hear it in your voice. Let me help you."_

_"I don't need help, Dixon. I just…I guess I wanted to say goodbye."_

_"Sydney, he left you before and he'll leave you again. I'm calling Vaughn and your father. We're coming to get you, just like old times, Syd. I just need you to…"_

_"NO!" Sydney screamed and then hushed up which really made Dixon feel uncomfortable. "Dixon, I'm safe okay. I'm happy…and you, my family…my baby, Vaughn, all of you are and…I…I want to keep it that way."_

_"No, Syd, I can read you. You're lying. You're not okay. Someone is making you say this. Sydney, we can work on clearing your name. We know you didn't blow up those buildings or kill those innocent people/ We know it but…you need to talk Syd, you need to…"_

_"No! Dixon PLEASE! My life as this good person you knew, it's over. Don't…Don't come after me."_

"_Syd," Dixon pleaded and warned at the same time._

"_Because if you do…I'll…I'll have to kill you."_

(end of flashback)

After that Dixon's mind went blank and he remembered her screaming something about , "you were recording me!" when the recorder conveniently ran out of tape and then finally hanging up, threatening him that he'd regret this, that his kids' lives would be in danger.

But he'd never believed her. He'd never gotten security. Sydney wouldn't do this. She was bluffing. He'd been her partner. He'd seen everything.

Well, he could only hope.

"…Sydney needed you then," Will continued, not realizing that Dixon had left the room for a second. "And I think she really needs you now. I know asking you to…"

"No, I'll do it!" Dixon cut in and held up a folder. "Marshall already handed it to me, per my request," he added quickly. Will couldn't help but notice that Dixon was trying very hard not to look at him, Dixon had just relived that conversation he realized.

"Dixon, you sure? I mean, I like the enthusiasm but…"

"I know I've been acting very …off…lately but…who hasn't?" Dixon chuckled. Chuckled. "Besides, you said Sydney needs me and I'm not about to let her down now." And then an even more miraculous thing happened. "So are you two on your way out?"

"Uh…yeah," Will confirmed and put his arm comfortably around Helen's appreciative shoulders.

"Good. It's nice to see young people enjoying themselves. I know I did, Diane, God rest her soul," Dixon added, shaking Will's hand firmly. "Glad to see you're back, I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, if you're okay by yourself."

"Absolutely, you kids enjoy yourselves."

Will watched speechless and worried as Dixon left the office. A lot of people had been emotionally traumatized, Dixon had been one of the worst.

" Will…Tippin? Do you want to go now?"

He looked over at Helen who looked innocent, wondering probably what had just happened to upset Will so much.

Will was seriously debating whether he should hang around but he immediately decided against it. Dixon had expressed he was okay, sticking around could only hurt him and he didn't feel like hindering his road to healing.

"Yeah, I'm feeling like really stuffing my face with Kung Pao chicken, if I'm going to have to act like I respect the guy than want to smash his face in. You know I'm going to need it," Will replied, dryly then held her close to him as they finally left the agency for the night, promising themselves they wouldn't think of work till when they were called back in the next morning.

0000000000000000000

So, how about that flashback? Think someone was telling her what to do? And who do you think is this Tobias Seacrest, huh? Where in the world did he come from! I have so many surprises in store for you, that's all I have to say!

Next part is going to be between Vaughn and what he has left of his family. Yes, adorable little Michedney is finally making her appearance, and some other characters that may surprise you just a little more!

Please review and I'll update! Thanks for all your support!

Total Vaughn Lover


	13. Part XIII: First meeting with the Enemy

Author's note: Hey guys! I just wanted to say thanks for continuing to read my fics. You all have kept me going. I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever, but now that I have resigned from my job of three years, I have more time to do the things I had to put on hold. (Trust me, being a manager is not a joke! LOL) Well nothing more to say I guess than

On with the story…

When She was Bad

Total Vartan Lover

Part XIII :

First meeting with the Enemy

Agent Marcus Dixon felt his steps get slower as he moved closer to a set of familiar glass doors.

It seemed like a faraway memory but only a few years ago, Sydney's mother and Sydney's best friend, now Agent Tippin had once spent time in the holding cells that lay beyond this entrance.

And most recently…Sydney.

Dixon sighed. He hadn't been here for at least three years. When his best partner had been captured, he couldn't bring himself to believe it.

No. He'd chosen not to believe it. He'd convinced himself and the agency that the familiar young woman was a clone, like Francie Calfo's clone had been. He'd signed off on an order authorizing personnel to perform methods of unrestricted interrogation.

Of course, he'd learned of her betrayal. He couldn't deny it any longer after he'd received the report of the results of her interrogation.

"_Yes, I…I was part of an operation that was sanctioned by an enemy of the United States…" _

Sydney's own words put into print.

That had been the last day he'd been able to look Sydney in the eye. He almost hadn't even agreed to visit her, even if that had been her last request before she was transferred to another more high security cell. The only reason he'd agreed to see her one last time was because he'd made a decision. He would step down from his position as Director of the JTF so that he would no longer have the clearance to be associated with any other plans the agency had to "break-down" Bristow.

He'd let Michael C. Vaughn make the next decisions. After all, it was his wife that she's mercilessly killed. He'd be able to deal with it in the same hard manner that it would have to be dealt with… mercilessly.

Dixon felt his hands tense up as a guard on duty stepped forward to greet the senior officer. "Good Evening, Sir. How may I be of assistance?"

"Good evening. I'm Agent Dixon," he reported then handed him the identification badge he'd unclipped from the lapel of his suit coat.

The uniformed officer took the badge, verified the information and then handed it back to Dixon. "Thank you, Agent Dixon. What is your business this evening?"

"I'm here to see the prisoner in our high security cell…Dr. David Manning on the orders of Director Vaughn."

"One moment while we verify your clearance, Agent Dixon," he apologized. "This is only protocol." Dixon nodded and watched as the guard pulled out a walkie-talkie and spoke into it. "Sir, I have Agent Dixon here, requesting to visit Dr. David Manning in our high security cell. Does he have orders from the Director?"

It took about a minute and the guard got his response. Dixon then listened as the guard radioed to the second set of guards, responsible for lifting the two sets of metal bars that were to follow. "Agent Dixon is approaching your post to visit the high security cell. He has received authorization from Director Vaughn, please let him through. Thank you."

"Sorry for the delay, sir," the guard murmured apologetically. He stepped out the way, pulling the door open for him. "Please return to these set of doors after you're done with your session. One of the officers there will assist you in your exit. Sir, I assume you know the way?"

Dixon nodded, thanked the guard then passed through the door. It closed behind him hard and he could hear the whir as a mechanical lock immediately fell into place. He then waited for only a moment for the first set of bars to rise before him and then repeated his actions for the final set.

A corner greeted him. Dixon cleared his throat. Turning this corner would bring him face to face with the man responsible for Sydney's poor decision to turn on the agency and the United States of America.

He wasn't sure he was ready to handle this, no matter how well Will's pep talk had went. At least, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle it without being violent as his supervisor had requested.

But he knew he had to. After all, Vaughn had managed to remain calm and professional throughout this whole nightmare since Sydney had been taken into custody for the second time. It wasn't going to go over well for him professionally if his boss found out his most trusted asset had lost control and decked the prisoner without authorization.

_Insubordination._ That was the last thing his director needed to deal with right now.

"Sydney wouldn't like it either," he thought next, as if he cared. From the information they'd received on the report right after his capture, Dr David Manning fit the bill for being the amazing man Sydney had left Vaughn for in the first place.

He needed to stop stalling. He had a part-time job as a father after he left the office.

He turned the corner then walked slowly to the glassed room.

He was not what he'd expected to see!

Sitting inside was an intelligent-looking young man, probably in his early twenties wearing a pair of dark slacks that had become worn from being in the same clothes for a week. His white button-up shirt looked torn, he guessed from the initial struggle. Dixon didn't feel the animosity he'd thought would boil over the moment he'd laid his eyes on him.

"Just keep this professional," he ordered himself, "you're strictly here to ask questions. You can do this. You will survive this meeting."

He knocked on the glass window to alert the prisoner.

David Manning lifted his head and Dixon saw hope had seemed to rise in his crystal blue eyes at the sight of him. Dixon found himself even more surprised as he watched Dr. Manning shut his book, stood up and attempted to smarten himself up before he approached him.

"Dr. David Manning?"

"Yes," the doctor replied, looking quite embarrassed. "But please, don't refer to me as "Dr." I'd prefer you just call me David."

There it was again, modesty. Yet another surprise.

"Right. Mr. Manning, I am Officer Dixon, a federal officer. I'd like to ask you some questions regarding…"

"Of course! Please," David cut in, looking eager to cooperate as he lowered himself onto the folding chair the guards had left for him.

"Actually, David, if you don't mind…I'd like to enter your cell. Director Vaughn has requested this conversation to be under surveillance so he can hear the answers to the questions himself from the playback," Dixon clarified.

He saw the first smidgen of loathing distort the doctor's handsome visage at the utterance of Vaughn's name. Dixon took this as the first indication that Dr. Manning didn't think highly of his girlfriend's ex-lover.

"Because of the profession you're in, I'm sure legalities shouldn't surprise you."

David's eyes remained in a faraway stare for another moment but then blinked and smiled at Dixon. "Of course."

Dixon gave him a polite smile then entered the door after punching in the 9-digit code. When he entered the cell, he noticed David had returned to sit on his cot, leaving the folding chair open for his guest.

Dixon took a seat tentatively, viewing the items in the prisoner's room. He caught a glimpse of the book David had hastily shoved away. A medical dictionary. How appropriate.

When Dixon didn't say anything, David prompted him. "Agent Dixon?" The prisoner obviously wanted to get this over with as well.

"Yes?"

"If you will allow a medical doctor's analysis, you look extremely tired. I can only imagine with the hours you pull. I'd recommend we get on with this so you can get home and get some rest. You need it."

Huh? How dare he patronize him! Sure his Ph D may prove that his diagnosis was valid but he was a prisoner. Why couldn't he just act like one?

"Dr. Manning, I appreciate your concern but please, don't waste your time worrying about me. I'm fine," Dixon argued, looking fixedly into the physician's eyes.

"Fair enough," David agreed. "I apologize if I've insulted you. When you've been a doctor for a while, you find yourself starting to give suggestions for obvious maladies."

"Noted. Dr. Manning, I'd like to start asking you the questions, and if you can respond only in English I can understand, I'd appreciate that."

David nodded.

"Okay. Are you aware of why the CIA sent agents to arrest you in your room at the New York City Ritz?"

"…No," the doctor answered truthfully. "But I knew that there had to be a valid reason. I also chose not to fight because I knew violence couldn't help my position," he added as he placed his hands together in his lap. "I suppose you're here to tell me why I'm here and how long your agency has been keeping tabs on me?"

"I'll be asking the questions, Dr. Manning," Dixon retorted. "But to answer your question we have reason to believe you're been doing some research in the area of biological warfare. We also have reason to believe you are very close to successfully creating a new more dangerous strain of a common bacterial infection."

"I can understand your concern but I'm a doctor and since the 9/11 attack and the constant scare of the possibility of the nation having to combat a biological war, I have been doing research but only to develop antidotes," David stammered, looking very offended. "I'm sure you'll find doctors all over the country doing some unauthorized experiments."

"You may be right about that," Dixon agreed. This young man sounded like he had anticipated what questions were going to be asked and how he was going to answer them. He'd just see what the analysts came up with after they reviewed his tape. He'd see if they could come up with the evidence to back this young man's story. "Let's move on then, shall we?"

After saying that, Dixon felt bile rise into his throat. He'd hoped to corner his companion before moving on to this segment of questions. He wasn't ready…he would never be ready but he knew if there was a chance in believing in Sydney, he had to prove that she'd been coheres into making the decisions she'd made.

"_Oh God, Vaughn. Please do not demote me if I lose my control on this eccentric smart-ass! Please don't take action against me if I deck him."_

Dixon removed a manila folder from the inside of his jacket and removed from it a picture of Sydney at the time her own father had brought her into custody.

"Dr. Manning, do you recognize this woman?"

David reached his hand out for the picture. Dixon placed it into his grasp and watched as the prisoner examined the photograph. After what felt like seconds he replied, "Yes, Agent Dixon…I know who this is."

"And who is this, Dr. Manning?"

What Dixon heard next was the last thing he'd expected to hear.

"This is Sydney Bristow…my wife."

Dixon wasn't sure he'd heard him right. "I'm sorry. Did you say Sydney Bristow was your wife?"

"Not was," David corrected immediately, "She IS my wife." Dixon watched as a change overcame him. He looked regretful, sad even. "Like most marriages today, we had some problems. Some I'm not sure we could ever fix, but I told her I didn't want to give up…which is why we never finalized a divorce."

"Sydney wanted a divorce?"

"I don't think so. She never mentioned it after I told her that I'd like to work it out," David murmured, shaking his head. "But I am worried. I…I haven't heard from her for five weeks."

"Five weeks?" Dixon repeated, looking incredulously at him. "You guys don't have cell phones?"

"We do but…I know that her job forces her to travel a lot," David informed him.. "Recently she told me that she got a residence in CA because she was going to have to be there a lot."

"Really?" Dixon inquired, looking more and more disbelieving. "And exactly what is this job that forces her to travel a lot?"

"Um…I'm not sure," David admitted, looking more like a loser. "That's been one our problems. I'm open with her on everything about me but she…she always seems to have a secret agenda. I know that she's happy to spend time with me just cooking dinner or cleaning house but…her business trips have become more frequent recently and then her house in LA. That has definitely taken a toll on our relationship."

"I'm sure it has," Dixon said in agreement. "Now, you claim to be her husband…"

"I am," he grumbled and held up his right hand. "I'd show you my ring but those agents of yours confiscated it. If they're done checking it for homing devices and bugs, I'd like to have it back."

"Right, I can see what I can do," Dixon drawled. "These business trips, did you ever ask her about them?"

"Of course I did," David cried angrily. "But she never said. She said she didn't like to talk about work. She didn't like it when I did either. Then I didn't push. I wanted her to know I trusted her. I also wanted to believe that she didn't want to talk about her day because she wanted our time together to be just that, about us."

Dixon debated on whether to change the subject. He was here to get to the bottom of how Sydney had gotten involved with an organization that had compromised the lives of her closest friends, not her supposed marital problems! David was starting to sound really pathetic and annoying as well. "Mr. Manning, I apologize but no matter how much you tell me about your terrible relationship issues, there is no way I can hel…

"But I'm not finished," David cut in, glaring at Agent Dixon. "So I trusted her, I told myself that she loves me and that she would never do anything to destroy our almost-perfect little life…but then she told me she was only going to be gone a few days and…she didn't return for three months. Mr. Dixon, I don't know what you'd classify as a few days but that was not a few days."

Dixon tried to say something but stopped himself when he realized David was not done. "When she returned there was no apology and she looked at me like nothing was wrong. I'd never felt so insulted. That's when I challenged my own values and started pondering the possibility that maybe my beautiful wife was in fact, cheating on me."

Oh! This was getting priceless. Dixon hoped Vaughn would allow him to be here when he got around to listening to this load of crap. "No! You suspected infidelity?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I mean, look at this picture. Sydney is a gorgeous woman with a sweetness that can't be described in words. Now I find myself wondering if that is exactly how she managed to deceive me?"

Dixon knew that he shouldn't believe his sob story and give him a chance but right now, he didn't think he'd get his cooperation going the other way. He was going to try.

"Dr. Manning, let's say that I believe your word. For the record I would like to say that I'm not going to completely dismiss it at this point in case what you're saying is true," Dixon advised him, choosing his words carefully. "Did you stumble on some type of evidence that forced you to break your trust in your wife?"

"N…no," Dr. Manning said after a beat, running a hand back through his coffee-colored hair. "Not anything I can give you physically anyway. Just my instincts."

"…but I can give you the name of one man that I believe led her astray," he added in a dangerous low voice. "And before I reveal this name, I have to ask you not to be biased about this."

Dixon nodded without hesitation. Not much more would catch him off guard tonight.

"His name Agent Dixon was "Michael Vaughn," your director I believe," he voiced. "She used to mention him all the time."

"You mean the officer that brought you in here?" Dixon inquired, making sure Dr. Manning knew whom he was talking about.

"That tall and though I'm not gay…let me say, handsome agent with authoritative presence? Yes, him. And it doesn't surprise me that she fell for him. Sydney loved a man in uniform," David chuckled, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I…in what regards did she speak to you about him?" Dixon added, praying that David wouldn't say something to jeopardize the Director's position in the CIA. He had enough going on in his life being a director and single dad.

"How else? That it was her ex-boyfriend, that he ruined her life. Broke her heart," David answered, his face looked as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. "She didn't go into much detail but it was easy to tell she'd been hurt by this man." "But then she also did mention this man named Sark. Apparently the guy that she sought consolance in. He must have been a great man, after all, it was he that brought that smile back to her face before she ended up with me."

Sark? Did this doctor really believe Sydney had found healing in a weapons-dealer? Was this man crazy? If Dixon thought for a second David knew who Sark was and still saying this, he would have decked him, despite the repercussions.

"You know, as happy as I know that I've made Sydney, I know that the only reason she even ended up in my arms is because this Sark character disappeared from her life with no letter…no explanation…sort of like she's done with me."

"And Sydney…she told you all this?"

"Yeah, and I there's one thing I know that has been bothering her ever since he disappeared…"

"And that would be?"

"That Sark is dead," David concluded in a forlorn tone. This comment was followed by a pause. Dixon didn't know what to say to this naïve man.

But what happened next was not something Dixon was prepared for.

David looked over at him with horror-filled eyes and then his arms shot forward. Next thing Dixon knew was that he was being shook hard by the prisoner. _What on earth!_

"Agent Dixon….Sydney…she's dead, isn't she?"

"No…I don't recall ever saying that, Dr. Manning," Dixon murmured as gently as he could. "I am here to talk about Sydney but I am going to need you to calm down first, sir."

"Sydney is dead! If not you wouldn't telling me to calm down!" Dr. Manning screamed, his trembling hands moving from Dixon's shoulders to his neck. "That's why I'm here, isn't it? ANSWER ME! I have a right to know!"

Dixon didn't sit back down. Instead, he kicked back his chair and got to his feet, pulling David up off the floor instead of it being the latter. "Look Dr. David, I've already asked you kindly not to react this way, to sit and let me talk," Dixon grumbled in such a condescending way that David backed down. "Remember, you may not be in handcuffs but you are the accused bad guy in this mess. And I'm not going to lie to you any longer because it's obvious what you're trying to do."

"What I'm trying to do? What do you mean by "what I'm trying to do?" I'm the betrayed husband that hasn't had contact with my dear wife for a long period of time! I know now that maybe I shouldn't have been so naïve but how dare you slam a motive in my face!" David screamed, his blue eyes looking a lot darker and more bloodshot than before.

"Oh drop the act, Dr. Manning! I've tried to put with your web of lies but you are just so full of it," Dixon cut in, angrily pushing the prisoner against his cot. _My apologies, Vaughn. _

"Full of it? Agent Dixon, do you hear what you're saying?"

"Yes, I know what I am saying!" Dixon thundered, looking stern, his arms folded to give him a more formidable look. "And what I'm saying is that if you continue to add to this already ridiculous story, I will see to it personally that you are placed in the penitentiary!"

"But I'm not lying! I am married to Sydney! Why are you looking at me as though you know I had something to do with destroying her? I already told you that I was creating antidotes but I would never dream of using my wife as a lab rat!" David complained, placing his hands on his head.

"STOP ACTING LIKE YOU'RE INNOCENT!" Dixon roared, no longer able to keep any of his anger at bay. "We have proof, Dr. Manning. Proof of you breaking Bristow out of this exact cell when we first had her in custody!"

"No…no," David murmured, not willing to believe it. "You…You've got this all wrong. How would I know how to break her out of this cell? I didn't even know this cell or this building existed until I was brought into a week ago."

"Since you're going to be in here a long time I might as well tell you why I'm so upset with you and just kind of person you have ruined by doing what you did," Dixon whispered. It was either this, or bellowing again. "Sydney Bristow was not only the most reliable agent I've ever had as a partner during my career here," Dixon revealed, his voice rumbling like thunder. "She was also my very good friend. I loved her as a daughter…a sister…and you…YOU tainted her. I don't know what made you think you had any right to do what you have done but I'm telling you now Dr. Manning, you can try continuing this innocent act and pretend that you're pure. That you were brainwashed or whatever crock-pot story your brilliant mind can conceive. Just know that I will…never…forgive you for what you have done." Dixon's voice grew lower and more dangerous, his dark eyes held a look of loathing that no words could describe as he focused them on the prisoner before him. "You…will…pay. You will admit what you had to do with Sydney losing her psychological sanity and you will do this RIGHT NOW!"

"Mr. Dixon, I have no intention of admitting to something I know nothing about. You claim that I am some kind of brain-melder. I'd like to see the proof you have to back this theory," David demanded in a matter of fact tone, looking suddenly very calm that it was eerie. "I'd like to speak with my lawyer before I am subject to any more of these ridiculous questions."

Dixon stared at him hard. This was the intelligence agency. He wasn't about to negotiate this with him, was he?

"Agent Dixon, I am not going to say another word until I speak with my legal council so I suggest you get me a phone and stop wasting both of our time."

Dixon held David's stern gaze for another moment then withdrew himself and nodded his head. "I will not deny you your request."

"Thank you," David offered, a bit surprised at the answer. That was too easy.

"But know this," Dixon interrupted as he gathered up the photo and his miscellaneous papers and shoved them back into its' pocket. "Unless you give me something, something tangible that I can work with, no one here is going to give you any information we may have on Sydney Bristow."

Dixon stood up, amused at the lack of words David had. He enjoyed it for just another moment before he signaled the guard to unlock the door and let him out. But his thoughts of going back home and playing the much-needed role of "father," for his kids was punctuated by an outburst from the "victim."

"Dixon….y…you know exactly where Sydney is, don't you?" he demanded, his voice shaky from what Dixon was sure was anger.

"Yes."

This response seemed to have triggered another case of "bio-polar" behavior as David unleashed the demon within. "SHE IS MY WIFE! Let me SEE HER!" David demanded as tears of hysteria rolled down his cheeks. "I'm sure you have a wife so you should understand when I tell you that you have NO RIGHT to keep her away from me!"

Dixon paid no attention to him. He instead nodded to the guard who had opened the glass doors and exited the room while David continued to scream like a mad man. He then turned toward the "cage" just as the folding chair he'd been sitting in smashed against the bullet proof glass. It took Dixon just a moment to decide how to handle this situation. "Guards, this man is out of control. I want you to contact medical services and get him on heavy sedation."

"Sir?"

"You heard me," Dixon replied, his attention stern. "Have you not been watching? This man will injure the room or worse, himself if we let him continue in this matter. Sedate him."

The newly-minted guard looked worriedly at the senior officer providing him with instruction. "Sir, are you sure that you don't need to get clearance from Director Vaughn? After all, this is his case."

"Director Vaughn is going to want his turn with Dr. Manning," Dixon explained to the guard, "He is a good man who only strives to be as great as his father was but, even he can crack that nice guy persona. I've witnessed it several times since this situation with Bristow. It'll be in Dr. Manning's best interest to behave during his questioning with the Director. I didn't hurt him but…Vaughn would have that authorization."

The guard still looked unsure but heeded his orders and called into medical services this time. About a minute or two later, the guard closed his cell phone and placed it into his pocket. "The order has been given, Agent Dixon."

"Thank you. I'm leaving then," Dixon said in a matter of fact tone.

"But sir…"

"What?" Dixon shot back, getting a little irritated.

"It's just…you gave the order sir. I thought you would stick around to make sure that it was carried out correctly…"

Dixon looked over at the guard after regrouping himself and gave him an apologetic smile. "Forgive me, it's just my kids…I need to get back to my kids. I trust that medical services know what they are doing," he then paused as he provided intel he probably shouldn't have to the young officer. "The questioning didn't go very well…if I had spent another moment in that cell…I would have done something to…compromise my position here."

The guard didn't say anything. Dixon had made his point. He instead stepped out of the way. Dixon gave the guard a pat on the back and then exited the high-security area, his only thoughts were to get into his car, and make it home to kiss his kids, "goodnight."

Something had to go well for him to retain his sanity.

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So here we are at the end of another episode of "When She was Bad." I know…I took a long time and I do apologize. Sometimes in life you just have to shift your priorities. But now that I have made time to get back to what I love doing…I'm planning to do it full blast! Please keep reading, send me a review so I know that you are even it's just to tell me that you'd like to see an update. Just as Kathryn McPhee and Taylor Hicks thrive on the roaring applause after every one of their magnificent performances, I thrive on the response of my hopefully satisfied readers.

Thanks again,

Total Vartan Lover


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